Changing Faces
by eQuasarus
Summary: [Officially on Hiatus] PostOotP. Harry isn't having a good summer. In fact, when Death Eaters find a way to attack his house, it probably is his worst summer yet. However, a clumsy Auror shows up to help even the odds of fate, and maybe find out that why
1. Dark Rain

**Disclaimer:** Such a shame it isn't mine. Would've been different by my design.

**Summary: **After Harry learns the truth about himself he is driven to learn how to stay alive. But when his house is attacked and burned to the ground he is not able to stop the attackers. Meanwhile, Tonks, given the job of guarding Harry, proves that she's more than she seems to be. Full fledged fic. Pairing will be Harry/Tonks in the long run.

Changing Faces

• eQuasarus •

Chapter 01

• Dark Skies •

A breath of heat was a relief for the residents of Little Whining, and for the rest of England. The previous summer cars had baked and children refused to go out and play because of the heat. Yards had shriveled and died, water toy sales had shot through the roof, and rarely was someone seen outside for more than a few minutes.

Now it was different.

The rainfall had started in only a week into summer. At first seemingly a summer shower, but then it continued and dark clouds filled the horizon. Wisps of smoke curled from the chimney tops of nearly every house lining Privet Drive, The chill that came with the rain was too much and now the residence were using their fires regularly. Including the residents of Number 4 Privet Drive.

The fireplace had been rarely used for the past several years, even during the winter. Even though the residents were quite afraid of it, they'd still reopened it and left the fire constantly burning.

Inside that house, staring out the window at yet another gloomy day, was a dark haired, emerald-eyed boy. He knew all to well that it was more than just bad weather. In the past five years, he'd seen many strange and wondrous sights, and he knew more than most that such things were rarely just coincidence. Hidden inside, away from the never-ending storm he was afraid. The storm beat against his window and Harry just stared off into the darkness wondering who or what was controlling it.

It did stop occasionally, for a few hours here and there. In those few moments, Harry would dash out the door and go for a walk, or to the park, somewhere that was far away from the dreary household he'd been condemned to live in. As in summers past, he detested the vacation and longed to return to the only place he'd ever called home, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But not this summer, it was good to be away from people that knew who he was.

On occasion, when he tried to escape he'd be caught by his Aunt Petunia. He'd then be sent back to his room with a stinging backside and a hungry stomach. She kept tabs on him all the time now and it seemed as if she barely allowed him out of her sight anymore. Harry thought it quite odd how she acted, not loving, but afraid of him and afraid for him. She'd been scared and angry because of what he was, but she'd never acted so strangely about it. Lately she'd even taken him along to the stores, making him stay next to her just to pick up some milk. Because of the rain, the group she was often found with had had a lot of Tea Parties and Harry was at nearly all of them. He sat quietly in the back corner of the room, doing nothing but thinking.

It wasn't really all that bad, compared to being marooned at Figg's house with those cats it was a picnic. It gave him time to think over the things that had happened last year, the death of his Godfather and the revelation that Dumbledore had given him. He liked the woman because they didn't want to talk to him, which meant he didn't have to talk to them. His problem was that he'd had since Sirius' death of wanting to have people around, but then not wanting them around when they were, was solved.

Still, he didn't get out by himself enough because of the rain and so, when one day the rain finally came to a halt Harry disappeared outside as quickly as the rain had. Petunia did her best to stop him, but she was quickly left behind and he was gone as soon as he'd seen his chance for freedom.

The park was soaked, but thankfully it was also empty.

Harry watched the clouds roll by faster than he'd ever seen. For a time, it seemed as if they were fighting the sun for dominance of the sky. The sun did not win, but neither did the clouds pour rain, though they seemed sorely tempted to try it. The sky's stayed dark for the rest of the afternoon, but Harry didn't much mind, he found it nice just to be away from everyone, included Dudley who'd become virtually impossible when his friends were around.

On his trip home Harry's eyes searched for danger, something to hurt. He desperately needed something, anything, to vent his mounting anger. Before it had been dogs that snapped at him, or even Dudley. Though no one ever got hurt, it was nice to just be angry at something, for some reason.

The rain clouds darkened and with them went Harry's mood. Someplace out there, someone was playing with more than just the weather. The vile man, if he could even be called a man, was trying to take control of the magical community, and then maybe even the world. That world would be a dark a destitute place, where no one would live without fear.

A short burst of rain didn't help matters at all, much less Harry's temper. Impossible as it was, it seemed to be centered around Harry himself.

When it cleared again and Harry could see his path he found that his cousin, Dudley, and the rest of his gang were in an alleyway ahead waiting for him.

"What?" Harry snapped when Dudley rudely stopped him.

Dudley didn't even so much as flinch; he'd been pushing Harry around ever since the young wizard's return. His friends smirked over at Harry and one even bothered to, as cliché as it sounds, crack his knuckles menacingly.

They'd had this sort of confrontation before, almost every time that the rain had cleared up. Dudley wasn't about to forgive Harry for what happened the year before when the dementors had come. Dudley must have seen some horrible things and occasionally Harry wondered what it was, but right now that didn't matter. Harry was about to get into a fight. Even with four to one odds stacked against him he didn't bother with the wand. At some point after Sirius' death he had come to understand that he couldn't win every battle by magic alone.

Dudley, being the stupid git that he was, had thought Harry wasn't allowed to pull his wand and was using this to his full advantage. So far Harry hadn't been harmed at all, not really. Dudley was quite powerful because the mass of weight he was carrying, but he was also slow and Harry was far quicker. He was still changing; he had lost some size but still was gaining weight.

This time, Dudley's friends seemed to be participating in the fun. That worried Harry slightly. Around the town they were notorious for beating younger children up. The few people who ever spoke about it only did so in whispers. Harry'd heard it when he was brought along with Petunia to go shopping. Of course it was never spoken of at the tea parties, maybe because the adults were just oblivious to the truth or they refused accept it themselves.

At home it was alright, but when she left he followed. Vernon was quite angry about the way Petunia was treating Harry. He said so quite often. Lately between Dudley and Petunia's odd behavior around Harry that was _all_ he talked about.

One of the boys stepped forward and Harry turned slightly, making sure he had the best perspective he could on his opponents.

The possibility of using magic in his defense occurred to him, and now he was sorely tempted to use it. Earlier in the holiday, he'd been sent a letter from the ministry. Someone high up was now very interested in his safety and had made a special allowance to use magic should it become a necessity. The letter had also mentioned that he would have Auror's assigned to his protection. Unfortunately, they must've forgotten to tell the Aurors'.

So far Harry had not seen any Auror's at all, even when he was away from his aunt or had snuck out. Sneaking out was his new favorite past time, getting away from the house altogether. He was actually waiting to see a Death Eater so he could take out all of his anger and frustration that was building up on him.

More movement.

"What? Scared that you'll trip over your own feet and fall on your fat arse again Dudley?" Harry taunted, trying to use Dudley's pride to his advantage, so the fight wouldn't be so unequal.

It didn't seem to work and Dudley motioned to everyone else. The whole group tightened around Harry until there wasn't much more than arm-lengths between him and everyone else. No one seemed confident enough to swing though.

The reason they'd waited suddenly occurred to Harry when they hastened to make enough room for Dudley to squeeze in between them. He stepped just a little more forward and swung as hard as he could.

Once again his swing, though strong, was slow and Harry easily ducked and casually took a step back. It was a mistake. From behind a foot fit itself into the back of his right knee and his leg collapsed under him. Another foot found his way into the opposite knee only a moment afterwards and in the three seconds after he'd collapsed to his knees.

"Not so quick now, are you?" Dudley growled, swinging a ham sized fist downward towards Harry's exposed face.

The swing that was intended for Harry's nose never made it. Someone bowled right into the group and knocked three of the troublemakers out of the way. Dudley's swing was redirected and ended up in the gut of another of the group.

Harry was the first to see his savior. She was about his height, blonde and had a smile that was very familiar. She was actually quite a knockout. "Well, 'bout time that someone needed my help."

Her speech immediately gave it away and Harry's jaw dropped. "Tonks?" He asked, utterly surprised.

"Yep." She jumped up, smiling brightly as the dusted her hands off dramatically. "In the flesh. Well so to speak."

She wasn't in any getup that Harry had ever seen. Her clothing was pretty close to the latest style and she had luxurious blonde cascading down to her shoulders in ringlets.. For a moment after seeing her, Harry had trouble breathing. He took a deep breath and started to get his thoughts together. Unfortunately, the thoughts he got were entirely inappropriate for him to be contemplating at the moment. He pushed them immediately away. Tonks was an Auror and she was much older than him. She had to be at least 28. A fact that he repeated several times to himself.

The gang that had been knocked down didn't take long to get to their feet and when they did Dudley immediately took control of the situation again. "Who are you?" He asked, angered by her intrusion.

"His girlfriend." Tonks said, matter-of-factly. "I've been looking all over for lover boy here. Thanks for holding him for me." She grinned wickedly.

Dudley's cheeks reddened and he looked at her for a long time. "You're the girlfriend of this git?" He asked, angrily.

"'Course. He and I met earlier in the summer and he asked me out. He's really cute." Tonks said putting her arm around Harry's reddening neck. She was obviously enjoying this.

Dudley didn't seem to know what to make of it. He just continued to stare at Tonks and whenever he looked to Harry it was with anger filling his eyes. "You know, he goes to St. Brutus's School for Incurably Criminal Boys. He may not look it be he's really a criminal."

Tonks looked over to Harry, her face enthusiastic and she winked. "Oh really. Harry? You never told me you were such a baaaaaad boy! Maybe we'll have to go back to my house and see how bad a boy you really are." She said overdramatically before licking her lips and looking at him in a _very_ suggestive manner.

Several of the boys in the group blushed just slightly. Dudley looked insulted and tried to think of something else to say. "I'm a bad boy too." He finally uttered lamely. "We've got the meanest gang in Little Whinging." He added, hoping that she'd forget about Harry and go with him.

Harry began to understand both sides and decided to play along with Tonks for a while longer; he liked getting back at Dudley like this, with something not even Dudley could change.

"We could..." He looked up to Tonks, giving her his million-watt-grin and a wink. "Go to your house. I'd like to do something other than fool around with Dudley. He's such a bore, never really does much but beat up little kids on the street."

"I'm the Junior Southern Boxing Champion, I'll have you know." He replied angrily "The best on this side of London. Father even thinks that I might be able to go to nationals and win."

"Ooooh. Boxing." Tonks said, feigning interest. "But why does a big boxer beat up people smaller than him, wouldn't it be better to practice on someone your own size. Not that there's any..." She stopped her comment and looked over Dudley. "...one that could really compete with you anyway." Harry desperately fought down the snigger that was threatening to escape.

For some reason Dudley took the comment as a compliment and he puffed up even more than usual. He was really interested in Tonks. Harry almost laughed again, it was funny that Dudley would like Tonks. But he stopped suddenly, remembering that he'd also been briefly attracted to her as well. Only briefly of course.

Tonks stepped up behind Harry and flipped him around, planting a solid kiss on his mouth. Utterly surprised Harry just let it go on, enjoying it more than he thought he should be. "See." Tonks said. "He's an amazing kisser too. Maybe I'll have to wait until I've gotten through with him before looking elsewhere." She said, waving at them and dragging Harry behind her to leave.

Around the corner Harry just stared at her. The kiss was so unexpected he was in shock. Was it his imagination or had there been some _tongue_ in that kiss?

"Don't you ever expect something like that from me again Harry." She said, turning to face him. "Don't let yourself get into trouble like that. You've been doing good all summer."

So she had been watching him.

"Wait a second! You mean to tell me you've been following me around all summer? You have haven't you?" He asked, staring accusingly at her. It took a lot to force himself to look away from her. Harry found himself reminded of Cho and what he'd been like around her. His stomach churned thinking about her though, and so he shifted his thoughts. _If_ Tonks had been around all summer...

"You saw me fighting Dudley before." He said, a little angry. Before he might've been using it as a chance to learn to defend himself, but now that he'd found out someone else was there he didn't like it. He was trying to act foolish in front of people that thought he wasn't much more than the lint in your stomach, but he hated people he knew seeing him like that.

"Yeah." She said, slowing to a walk. "You didn't do too bad though I would have suggested some different moves when it came to you cousin. He's an oaf really, he might be able to swing a few good hits but he tires easily. It'd be best to try and wear him out before he gets in those swings. Make him run a little."

Unconsciously Harry took notes. He even felt like asking Tonks more questions. But it sill nagged at him that she'd seen it already. "Why didn't you help then?" He asked.

Shaking her head she started to drag Harry behind her again. Come on, let's go somewhere a little more private." Then, nodded her head back to the street they had come from. The whole of Dudley's gang were standing on the corner watching the exchange intently. They were too far to hear what was being said but it was quite obvious that they were enjoying themselves.

At the park, with no one around Tonks shook her head and her face changed to one that Harry recognized, her hair changed color as well. "There, " She said and plopped down in the grass." I hate looking so young, not that it's bad or anything..." She trailed off.

"So?" Harry asked.

Tonks looked at him confused. "So what?" She asked innocently.

"Why didn't you help then?" Harry glared at her.

"Oh. That." She shook her head. While Harry wondered where exactly she had been, he didn't remember anyone else seeing him or the rest of the group. No one was around at all of they wouldn't have done what they did. "Well I was trying to see if you had any experience defending yourself. You don't have the best form but you're rather fearless. Not the smartest fighter on the block, but that doesn't make a difference when you're fighting brainless gits like them."

In her mind, she suddenly decided something and hopped up. "Come on, I'll show you how to incapacitate that cousin of yours without working to hard." She took a step towards Harry, "Here, watch. You'll love this." She made a sweeping motion and jabbed softly into Harry's neck, barely even touching the skin. Nothing seemed to happen for a moment but then he started to loose his breath. After choking for a few seconds the sensation was lost and he was clear enough to breath again.

"How did you..." After pausing to take a breath and trying to figure out what she'd done he looked at her again, "do that?"

"It's magic..." She said jokingly and Harry grinned at the joke. "No, really, you put a little magic into it. Like when you're trying to apparate you have to push magic out of yourself, not just through your wand. Or when you... no never mind. Just push magic into it. You can push magic into anything or anyone."

Trying again and again for what seemed like hundreds of times, Harry finally gave up. He just couldn't seem to push magic out of himself like she could.

When he'd given up Tonks stepped forward to console him. "It's alright, really, it took me some time too." She patted his shoulder.

Feeling a little better Harry nodded and waited to see what Tonks wanted to do. He hadn't received more than a letter or two from Ron and Hermione. He understood why, Dumbledore was trying to keep him out of the loop again and it frustrated him. Now that Tonks was here maybe he could get some information out of her.

"So... how's the fight going?" Harry asked finally. She seemed to easily just drift in the silence, not at all uncomfortable.

The silence still continued and Harry shifted, then eventually sat down. He was very uncomfortable because of the silence.

"Have you ever just stared at the clouds?" Tonks asked. "It's amazing how much they change, they just form into whatever they want to be. Anything you can imagine. One second you see something and then you blink and it shapes into something totally different."

Looking up at the clouds Harry couldn't see anything. They were just clouds, nothing really special about them as far as he could tell. So he didn't answer, not knowing what to tell her. What she saw and what he saw were two completely different things.

"The minister himself assigned me to your protection team. I screwed up on one of the missions and Riley got injured. Dumbledore wasn't very happy with me so he spoke with the minister about this assignment." She said, sounding sad. "I don't even know much right now, I haven't been around to hear anything. If I knew I'd tell you, really. I know what it's liked to be out of the loop." She trailed off sullenly.

Harry felt sorry for her. He remembered the last summer when she'd been in Sirius' house and was knocking over umbrella and chairs along with all the other accidents that just seemed to magically happen around her. But then, when she was fighting in the Department of Ministries she seemed to have done just as good as any of the others there. Except for Dumbledore of course. Harry was still amazed at what Dumbledore had done.

"Sorry Tonks." Harry said, feeling partially responsible because of what had happened.

"Nah. S'alright. I ain't suppose to be talking to you anyway. Not unless you go and get yourself into trouble. Been bored a lot lately. It was fun to play with those boys' minds. They're pretty daft anyway, using Drax and all."

"Drax?" Harry asked, curious.

Tonks paused for a minute and looked down. "Drugs maybe? Keep forgettin' you were raised a muggle. Don't know everything about Wizards still. Drax or potions usually stuff that makes your feel really good for a while, but they're not the best thing for you. Addictive and all. Not too many wizards use 'em, but they're really effective."

If Dudley ever got caught using drugs he'd be in a heap of trouble, Vernon wouldn't even believe them and neither would Petunia likely. They never believed anything bad about Dudley.

Petunia was different now though. She never smiled at all, she had lost a good deal of weight since last year and her eyes seemed to sag when she looked at Harry. Since the summer started she hadn't once called Harry a git, in fact she'd rarely said more than two or three words to him at once.

Harry stood but Tonks pulled his feet out from under him and rolled on top of him. "You should get into trouble more often.

Harry gave her a grin and there was a definite mischievous twinkle present in his eyes, not unlike the one Dumbledore sometimes sported. "I'll do my best." He drawled, or at least tried too.

"Ah, that's the spirit!" she laughed as she playfully ruffled his hair.

Nearing the house Petunia appeared, throwing the doors open and rushing out in the rain to Harry. "Where have you been Harry?" She demanded, her voice full of fear again.

For a moment Harry almost yelled back at her. She was really getting him angry and he didn't want to have to answer to her. Dudley was probably back by now and had invented some story.

Vernon showed up at the door a moment later and grabbed Harry by the arm, tightening his grip around it as best as possible. "I've been hearing some things about you boy. Dudley here says that you're going with one of our kind. Is that true?" He asked after dragging Harry into the house.

So Dudley was home. He must've been quite angry at Harry because of Tonks and wasn't going to give up on getting her.

"Yeah, and?" Harry replied casually.

For the first time he could remember Vernon did more than just get angry. His hand came down quicker than Harry expected and marked his face with a bright red hand. "You will not give me such disrespect _boy_. I never want to hear you talking like that again! You're one of _them._ You should be seeing your own kind and stay away from regular people! I'm warning you to stay away from normal people or I'll see to it you never go to that blasted school again!" Vernon bellowed in rage.

The shock of the events left Harry speechless for only a few seconds, not long enough for everyone else to compose themselves. In the next moment, he had his wand drawn and pointing it into Vernon's belly. If you _ever_ do that again," Harry said in a dangerously quiet voice, "You'll be meeting my godfather in the afterlife. And he won't be as generous as I am."

For the first time since Harry'd come home he'd revealed the truth of things, why he was so angry at everyone. Vernon didn't seem to care. "Serve's him right. That wretch of a man never deserved to live anyway!" He screamed, his voice outrageously loud. He didn't seem to care at all that Harry had pointed his wand at him and he brought his hand up again and started to swing.

Harry was not about to let it happen and had his wand up and a spell chosen to cast onto Vernon. "My godfather," he spit at Vernon, infuriating him even more, "was more of a man than you'll ever be." Petunia shrieked and jumped between Harry and Vernon, making everything stop.

"Please." She begged Vernon. "Don't. He'll hurt you and there's nothing we can do about it."

Dudley looked so frightened he'd about wet himself. He was standing in the corner and had been watching with some degree of satisfaction, not caring what happened to Harry as long as it was bad. Now he was loosing a battle in his head and was genuinely frightened of the threat Harry had just posed.

"Never!" Roared Vernon after Petunia had moved away, thinking he was alright and wouldn't try and hurt Harry again.

A knock on the door caught everyone's attention at such an inopportune time. It did however save Vernon's life, he stepped away and rethought matters for an instant. Harry was not about to take another hit and was about to punish Vernon for a life of misery that Harry had gone through and for insulting his godfather. Had Vernon's hand continued it would have never struck its mark.

A postman was standing there looking confused when Petunia opened the door. In his hand was a stamped parchment with two words on the front. It was written in large, smooth loopy letters. _Harry Potter_. Harry barely caught a glimpse of it, he instead was watching Vernon, waiting for something to happen in order to hurt the man that had raised him.

Petunia snatched the letter from the postman and slammed the door. Probably making the postman even more confused. He didn't seem to know how he'd reached the door with the piece of mail in his hands, especially one without an address.

"Open it!" Yelled Petunia throwing it at Harry violently. She looked at the thing as if it were evil.

Harry stared at the letter for a moment, not quite sure who it came from. The writing wasn't any he could ever remember seeing, and the seal was completely new to him. It was a dragon wrapped around a stiletto, its fiery flames filling the background. It was ominous, but attracting at the same time. Finally, his mind made up, he carefully broke the seal and unfolded the parchment.

Inside, nothing was there, the paper was completely blank. Harry's face crinkled in confusion at the strange letter until a peculiar noise began emanating from it. A deep hollowing sound that resonated throughout the room as if someone were screaming deep within a cavern. Harry dropped the note in shock and then Petunia screamed before fleeing the house faster than Harry'd ever seen her move. She headed down the street towards some unknown place leaving the rest of the household standing there, confused.

Vernon looked at the empty letter and snatched it from the floor, throwing it towards the reopened fireplace. Harry tried to stop him, afraid of what the letter was for. He didn't seem to be getting any letters anymore, not from Hermione or Ron or even Luna, who'd swore she'd write him over the summer.

Some of the other members of the DA had sworn the same thing and yet, not a single letter had reached him. He hadn't received any owls at all. Hedwig spent long periods of time gone when he sent out letters, but never returned with anything. What really troubled Harry was his inability to receive the Daily Prophet.

The letter was gone in a puff of green smoke, but the fire turned green as well. Harry wasn't sure exactly what it meant, but he could feel right away he was in danger. His scar twinged slightly and that was enough for Harry to know that whatever it was that was about to happen was not good.

Surprisingly, Voldemort had yet to annoy him during the summer, but at the same time he'd been deprived of knowing what might be happening in the outside world. Both facts greatly troubled him.

A face appeared in the fireplace, one that filled Harry with such hate and deep loathing it made him stop in his tracks. "Leave!" The voice of Peter Pettigrew squeaked in the fireplace. "He's coming for you."

Then it was gone.

Harry stared into the fire as it turned orange again and tried to figure out what was happening. Peter Pettigrew, the reason that Sirius had been in Azkaban and not been able to see to Harry's care and growth was giving him a warning. Harry wondered for a moment if he should listen to it or ignore it. But the urge to ignore it was overwhelming. Peter was on their side and he wouldn't give Harry a warning like that unless he wanted him out of the house for some reason.

Vernon started to growl again, sounding remarkably like a bear. Harry took the moment to head for his room. But he'd only gotten part way up the stairs when he heard the front door blow in and strike the opposite wall with a resounding crash.

Brief thoughts of fear screamed through his mind again. No one would break the door down like that except a Death Eater. He didn't even turn to look, he just continued up the steps into his room, his wand in hand and at the ready. Now, given the chance, he wasn't sure if he really wanted to be fighting the Death Eaters, but neither did he want to be left totally defenseless. Someone was charging up the stairs behind him before he reached the top floor, and he quickly turned on his pursuers in an attempt to fight them off.

He called out the first hex to come to mind even before he'd seen the face. The person heard the charm and looked up to Harry before dodging it. Harry didn't send another off, he almost jumped back down on Tonks to hug her.

"Why are you here?" He asked quickly.

She shook her head and covered her mouth with a finger, then pointed upstairs. Harry hurried up again, followed closely by Tonks.

At the top of the stairs and in his room again Harry turned to her and repeated the question. Tonks ignored him momentarily and turned to the door, putting a spell on it. "You're in trouble." She said when she turned back to Harry. "A book was stolen from Dumbledore this morning that could help the dark lord overpower the charm that your mother put on you. I only just received notice. The fight's been furious and Dumbledore only just had enough time to send me word. We have to leave, and now, before they get here."

Harry looked around at his room. Again it was thrashed, books and clothing everywhere. His desk was filled with unfinished parchments and scrolls, some schoolwork, some letters. For the second time with Tonks in his room Harry felt ashamed of how he'd kept the room up. His mind was not too troubled though, he was thinking of what need to be packed.

An explosion caught both of their attention and Tonks pulled Harry behind her, closing her eyes for a moment. "They're here. We have to leave now. Forget everything."

"How are we going to leave?" Harry asked looking around wildly, he would not leave everything, and he dove for his trunk, digging in and producing his invisibility cloak. "How about this?"

Tonks shook her head anxiously. "There's bound to be dozens of them down there, we can't risk trying to get through them."

•


	2. A Real Mess

Chapter 02

• A Real Mess •

Downstairs a vase shattered, only adding to Harry's now visibly distressed state. He was near his door, wand in hand, trying his best to figure out what he was going to do. He turned to Tonks again, his jaw tightened and a sense of foreboding filling him.

"You're joking right?" Harry asked in a strangled voice, staring apprehensively at the window, that, moments ago Tonks had dropped his precious Firebolt out of while simultaneously trying to mount it. Then, of course, to compound matters even more, several Death Eaters had meandered back outside and were waiting around to insure that Harry didn't get outside without someone seeing.

Tonks made a motion as if about to summon the broom back to her, but Harry quickly stopped her.

If Tonks had summoned the broom, either the sudden movement or the bushes rustling would have attracted far more attention than they needed at the moment. In all likelihood, the broom wouldn't make it to within ten feet of them before they were attacked.

So Tonks had come up with an idea. It didn't matter if it the best idea at the moment, but it was by far the most insane idea that anyone could have come up with other than confronting the Death Eaters by themselves. She wanted to jump, with Harry holding on. Then, at the same time, summon the broom to her, mount it and fly away.

From her determined expression Harry could see that the idea was not a joke as he'd hoped. She truly intended on doing it. Harry'd fallen out the window for and barely a second had passed before he'd struck the ground, if she even though she could do this, she was… "You're nutters." He whispered fiercely, staring at her amazed. "You're totally nutters." He whispered again, hoping that the ruckus downstairs would keep the Death Eaters at bay for a minute or two.

"Seriously Tonks, you just dropped the broom trying to mount it, and now you want to try and mount it in mid air? You think you can do that?"

"Oh and you could do better I'm sure!" Tonks snapped angrily, but still determined to do it.

Downstairs something else was destroyed and Harry whirled from Tonks, making sure, once again, his door was firmly closed and locked for the third time. He looked down at his invisibility cloak, which was still gripped tightly in his hands. He wasn't quite sure what to do now, he could stay with Tonks and try to do something that was completely insane or he could hide and hope they'd think he wasn't around. Unfortunately, loud footfalls clearly told that nearly a dozen Death Eaters were rushing throughout the house, tearing apart anything that stood in the way of their mission.

His mind finally came to a conclusion when he heard Vernon's gruff voice reach a crescendo down below before cutting off abruptly. In the few seconds he spoke Harry distinctly heard his name and his bedroom location. Crestfallen Harry turned back to Tonks, hoping that she had another better idea. He couldn't think of anything more to do and he was moving well into total panic.

Spread across her face Harry could see a hesitant look. "Please," she begged softly. "You do trust me, don't you?"

There was a lot more to the question than appeared at first glance, and for the life of him he couldn't figure out what it was. Harry could feel some deep-seated emotions, the answer really meant a lot to her although he couldn't understand exactly why. Her eyes told him that to her it was far more than just a statement of trust. Not many people trusted her it seemed, mostly due to her clumsy and slightly naïve nature. And even though he hadn't noticed it yet, she was hurt because of it.

After a hesitant three seconds Harry came to decide what he was going to do. "Yes. I trust you. But it's just… you have to understand, this isn't something easy for me." With that, he tucked his wand into his belt and offered her his free hand, using his other to stuff his jacket with his invisibility cloak. He noticed that his jacket had already gotten wet from the moisture in the air, but didn't think much about it, at least it'd offer him some protection.

Tonks, satisfied with his answer, wrapped the young wizards arms tightly around her waist. He could feel her breath increase as she paused momentarily to gather her wits. Then, with an unusual display of grace, she dove out the window, taking him with her. Harry began to reconsider his decision immediately after she sprang into the air. He had a brief vision of the sky, but he pulled himself tightly to Tonks, hoping for the best.

Somehow, a miracle happened and she pulled it off. Barely out of the window, she had his broom between her legs and a good grip on its polished handle. Harry didn't even see her summon it, though he had been far more concerned about the ground at the time. Pulling the broom up took a bit longer with the weight of an extra person; they nearly plowed into the bushes before the broom gathered enough momentum to pull out of their fall. Even then she jerked up so violently that Harry's stomach twisted in a knot. His blood started pumping like when he was in Quidditch matches, only it was even more concentrated.

The moment after the rush, and just prior to the Death Eaters spotting them Harry felt better than he ever had before. It was more than just a rush; it was almost like pure bliss.

Then the Death Eaters began yelling.

The broom twisted sharply, changing its course dramatically with neck jarring effects. Harry could do nothing but hold on to Tonks as tightly as possible; she was in charge now and seemed to be a bit unused to the Firebolt's sensitive steering. He'd never flown with someone else flying pilot and it was a new experience, he felt very conscious about how she was flying his broom. She flew down Privet Drive as if the devil himself was after them. Which, in a way, he was. She popped over a low-lying hedge and into the yard of a house Harry was all too familiar with.

Twin jets of magical energy lanced past by them on their right side, striking one of the trees in the front yard and instantly starting a blaze. Tonks leaned into the broom, egging it to higher speeds. Harry dared to look back and saw that a Death Eater was already pursuing them on broomstick. The Death Eater's broom would normally be no match for Harry's Firebolt, but they were riding tandem while the Death eater had no extra weight to slow him down. Out of the blue, one of Mrs. Figg's crazy cats jumped out of the blazing tree, hissing and spitting in its terror. The hapless creature struck the perusing wizard right in the face, sending both careening out of control. There was a spurt of blood and the cat spun sharply with the impact and lay motionless on the ground. The cat had left his mark though. Slowing down and clutching his right eye, the Death Eater's enraged cries sent shivers down Harry's spine. Before he could turn back the wind caught his glasses and whipped them off of his head, not even giving him a chance to grab for them. Harry cursed himself for not wearing the little glasses strings Aunt Petunia had gotten him because he thought it made him look foolish.

The broom twisted sharply again, swinging nearly 90 degrees to the left, directly into a neighbor's back yard. The fence, which had been strangely opened, swung closed from the blast of wind as they passed it. The brickwork of the house flashed clearly in front of Harry, scant inches from his face.

The masonry was gone in a blink of an eye, replaced by a blurry garden of some sort. The broom pulled into a climb immediately. As they past the upper part of a shed it blew up under them, helping their ascension even more, but tearing some of Harry's pants away and scorching the soles of his trainers.

The climb increased until Harry felt as if he might roll backwards and fall to the ground. He didn't dare look back again in fear of what he might see, he simply clung to Tonks tightly and squeezed his eyes shut. Better for death to be a surprise, than to see it coming.

Reversing the direction completely Harry felt gravity shove them back down towards the broomstick as they went into a dive. Harry's stomach knotted again, but he didn't feel it, his adrenaline had started pumping so fast that nothing else mattered, just the ride of his lifetime. Something below them moved into their way. Tonks whipped quickly left then right, causing Harry's eyes to involuntarily open and focus back onto what was happening.

He could see Tonks' shoulder rise, and one hand loosening itself from the broom, grabbing the wand that was tucked away beneath her robes. He heard her start to say something but a crack of thunder kept it from being heard. Harry, blinking furiously at the sudden illumination, glanced skyward as best he could, even though he couldn't see anything, and wondered where the thunder had come from. It may have rained a great deal lately, but there was very little in the way of thunder or lightning. A prickly feeling surged across Harry's skin making his hair stand on end, as if the very air were poking him everywhere softly.

Below them Harry noted that whatever it was that had been in their path was now gone, they were however uncomfortably close to the ground and moving extremely fast. Tonks was able to pull out of the dive, but it was far closer to the ground than Harry felt happy with when he wasn't the one that was flying. The blades of grass skimmed across his pant legs even though they'd been tucked up as closely to the broom as he could hold them. The dew from the grass thoroughly soaked his burnt and shredded jeans, making them even colder than they had already been.

A bright yellow curse raced past them on one side; moments after Tonks had adjusted their course yet again. It stuck a tree, throwing flames and chunks of bark for several yards in every direction. Harry only saw the extent of the damage in the brief moment they past the tree, but what he could see reminded him strongly of when Dudley had gotten a hold of a firework called an M-80 and strapped it to on of the larger trees in a nearby park. Harry'd gotten blamed for it and eventually the tree had died because of the scar.

They were currently rampaging through someone's front yard, at least as far as Harry could tell. Things were hard to see without his glasses and at the speed they were moving he had only a fraction of a second to see and identify things.

Tonks pulled up sharply, avoiding a long row of shrubberies that acted as a fence to the yard. On the other side of the bush she stopped the broom so suddenly that Harry started to get sick again. He could feel his stomach jumping to his throat and was glad he hadn't eaten at all lately.

Two more Death Eaters passed by them on either side at tremendous speeds, not having a broom that could handle such a sudden stop. Harry watched Tonks as she fired off two hexes in quick succession. In one smooth motion, she slid her wand into its hidden sheath and was off again quicker than Harry could blink.

The charge that had been building up in the air got even more concentrated and a burst of energy flowed through Harry. The world whitened into a sudden dazzling brightness, nothing at all was visible. It was like staring into the sun. At the same time his whole chest felt constricted and he had a hard time drawing a breath. The sound was even more incredible; it was like a huge explosion that rattled his bones and nearly deafened one ear.

"Y'alright?" She yelled back to him as they trimmed the rooftop of a nearby house.

"Yeah!" Harry yelled back into her ear, hoping she'd hear the rest. The lightning was frightening him, it was as if it was chasing them, or reacting to something they were doing. She seemed preoccupied and she pulled out her wand again, fumbling around with it. "But can you be a bit more careful? I think we lost all of them that were chasing us."

Whatever it was they were doing he wanted to figure it out so that they could keep from being struck.

The wind picked up, howling in their ears as they started to rise into the clouds and Harry could feel the charge again, waiting for something, some reason to discharge on them.

"Sure!" Tonks shouted into the wind. She also said something that was far too quiet for him to hear and at that instant Harry could feel a discharge again, just as before. Tonks proceeded to roll so hard to the left that Harry felt as if he were being thrown from the broom. The only reason he wasn't was because he kept his legs locked under the broom and his hands locked around Tonks.

A bright flash of light filled his whole field of vision yet again. Quickly the light was followed by an intense rumbling which shook him to his very bones. An explosion in his ears finished the moment off. He didn't even know hot to describe the sound, it was more than loud, it couldn't be considered deafening, it was too loud for that. His whole body reverberated from the sound, and it felt as if he'd been struck by a gigantic Bludger. It felt as if even some of her bones were at the point of breaking within him simply from the intensity of the noise.

When his sight returned he could see that they were flying down the center of a street, the center markings just to his right. Two dots of light were in the far off distance, but headed right towards them.

"Tonks!" Harry yelled, trying to make her see where they were going. He hoped it was working, he couldn't even hear himself speak after the explosion a few moments before. He wasn't sure if he'd ever hear again. He yelled again, only knowing that he was making some sort of sound because of the rumbling in his throat. It seemed she couldn't hear him either, and somehow was missing the fast approaching pair of headlights.

"Come on." He screamed as loud as he possibly could, then shook her violently. She seemed dead, No longer worried about waking Tonks, Harry let her go completely and took a grip on the broom, pulling it up and away from the car.

They missed it by a much more significant margin than they'd missed some other things in the earlier flight, but Harry had to wonder what the people in the car were thinking. They must've though it off to see two people coming at them much faster than they were traveling, and without a vehicle.

Before pulling into the clouds Harry glanced back towards his house, not thinking he'd even see it because of the distance they'd traveled, but he did see it. Not the house itself, but he could tell where it was, the Death Eaters seemed to have set it to flames before they left.

Pulling up harder Harry ascended into the clouds, hiding themselves from muggle view and any Death Eaters that might've been trying to catch them again. They were already going to be in enough trouble as it was. The daily prophet was going to have so much to write about him it wasn't even funny. When they'd reached a good height Harry tried to find a clear patch, away from the numerous clouds that were quickly soaking his clothing even more thoroughly. No open area was in site and Harry just decided to deal with the cold for now, because waking Tonks was far more important.

After some aggressive shaking he finally screamed into her ear, trying his best to waken her. He hoped she wasn't dead. He didn't know where he was going and they were moving fast, he probably wouldn't be able to easily find his way back home even if he wanted to. But at the moment that was probably the last place he wanted to be. By now it would be swarming with Aurors and reporters trying to find out what'd happened. The real thing Harry was afraid of was Vernon, especially if Tonks wasn't awake. Vernon would ring his neck before any one else could stop it, because he'd only see it as Harry's fault.

The house wasn't somewhere he wanted to return to anyway, there were far too many bad memories.

Seconds ticked by until several minutes had passed, Harry continually trying to awaken Tonks again and again. Finally, after he'd given up, her head shot up, striking Harry in his forehead.

She looked around, unsure about where she was, and it seemed to dawn on her after a while. "Harry…" she said, surprised when she turned to see his face. "We're… They… Flying. Harry! Where are we!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, taking a strong grip on the broom.

Harry gladly let go, his hands already chilled, and then rubbed his forehead softly. "Getting away from everyone that was chasing us, it wasn't much help when you blacked out." He yelled back, loud enough that she could hear. The wind was starting to get stronger and it was whistling around them loudly most of the time. "I don't know where exactly we are. We could go down and see, but we're not concealed to well and I think we'd loose the invisibility cloak if I tried to pull it out." He continued, hoping she could hear him.

The wind whipped them strongly again, shifting their course for the twelfth time. Harry had tried to prevent it from happening, but between trying to wake Tonks and trying to keep semi-warm he couldn't do it very well.

"… right… track… we're… order…" Harry heard Tonks reply.

He wasn't about to ask her to repeat it, because there was no way he could've heard it anyway. He saw her pull her wand from her belt and wave it. As she did he felt the air snap at him again, the air felt static just as it had before. Before he could warn Tonks the lightning had already struck. This time instead of it just being close, Harry could feel it hit them fully. He closed his eyes, but they were still filled with an overwhelming light.

Harry could only wish that by some miracle they would survive this time. The broom didn't seem to want to comply to Harry's wishes and started spinning wildly, not following any of the directions Tonks was giving it verbally. He could feel her moving about and he opened his eyes after the powerful concussion shock had ripped through his body. Though this time it was different, he felt completely disorientated and his whole body was numbed.

When he had regained some of his sense he saw Tonks trying furiously to stop the broom, she kicked out her feet behind her while at the same time grabbing the front of the broom (a built in stopping mechanism). It did not work, the broom just kept building speed until they were racing through the clouds so fast it felt as if they were breaking through layer after layer of paper thin ice.

Tonks rose her wand and Harry snapped it from her hand before she could use it, something about the magic was drawing the lightning to them and he didn't want to risk being hit again. It was a miracle they'd survived thus far. His movement seemed to push the broom even faster.

"Down!" Harry yelled, taking control from Tonks again and driving the broom towards the ground. Tonks lost it, just leaning into the broom until they were at a straight drop. The wind whipped around Harry's coat , trying to pull it from his arms. Squinting his eyes Harry waited and waited, trying to pull up exactly when he needed to, he'd learned the braking technique on his own accord while he'd spent some time practicing on his broom after he'd first got it. The ground appeared, coming at him faster than 200 miles an hour. At the last second Harry jerked the broom, pointing it straight towards the sky.

While the movement was violent, and difficult, especially with Tonks riding with him, Harry was able to perform the maneuver perfectly, coming to within inches of the rooftop when the broom finally stopped.

Gently, ever so gently, Harry dropped to the rooftop and took a second to breathe. Tonks dismounted the broom when she turned back to Harry the only thing he could see was a wide grin. "That was amazing. I've done some stupid things in my life… but that was a rush. I'll have to show you jacks sometime, I think you'll like it.

"What is it?" Harry asked, relieved that Tonks wasn't angry at him for doing something so stupid.

"It's… well you fly up and you… and you… disapparate… but… Oh. Never mind, you'll just have to watch someone do it, it's not something that sounds right when you explain it. You'll have to learn to apparate to do it though."

"I don't know how to do it. I can't learn either, you're not allowed to do it until you're legal aged." Harry said quietly, he'd wanted to learn a lot of things but he couldn't teach himself at school because Hermione wouldn't let him get away with it and at home if he used magic he wouldn't be able to go back to Hogwarts.

A chill ran up Harry's spine as a passing wind caught the tails of his jacket. It was cold, and they needed to get somewhere safe and soon.

"Hey!" A voice came from the front of the house. Harry and Tonks both looked down the roof to see a man staring up at them.

"Wotcher." Tonks called happily, waving and smiling down to the man. Harry shook his head, a muggle wouldn't be too happy with people on his roof. Mostly, because he wouldn't be able to make much sense of it.

"What are you doing up there!" The man demanded. Then, without even waiting for an answer he pulled out a small black thing from his cloak. "I'm going to call the police!" He yelled and then looked down, pushing something on the object.

Harry looked over to Tonks, a bit afraid, getting the police involved wasn't something he wanted to do. The guy was already talking to someone when Harry looked back. Tonks was staring down, interested. "What's that he's got?"

"Tonks. We'd better leave. We don't want muggle police involved do we?"

She shook her head briefly and then headed over to the other side of the roof, where the man couldn't see them. "We'd best get going then." She said, mounting the broom ahead of Harry again.

The wind had picked up, and no matter what Tonks did she couldn't keep them from being barraged by rain once it had started again. It was cold and Harry was soaked thoroughly in a matter of minutes. The coat, which had been wet, but provided some protection only made him colder as they rode through the air.

Harry shivered more than a few times, and started to tuck into himself to keep as warm as possible. Tonks on the other hand kept dipping down to just below the cloud line to try and get a bearing. He wasn't quite sure if she knew where she was going or not, but she was driving and he didn't have the slightest clue.

"It's cold." Harry whispered after a great deal of time had passed. A intense spasm filled his body, and he couldn't help but shiver for a extended period of time. He could not hear himself speak, or else he would've realized it was useless. The words he spoke were spoke were slurred so much that it was hard to tell he was speaking at all.

The spasm went away and for a moment Harry relaxed. It didn't last long, but the next time his mind filled with the spasms. It felt light, and then it started to warm up around him. Below him the lights looked beautiful and the warmth filled him even more. He watched the lights and as they flickered they enticed him. They were beautiful and the longer Harry watched the closer Harry wanted to be. Tonks wasn't going down though, and Harry was sure he wasn't going to be able to get closer anytime soon so he just decided to go alone, he didn't need Tonks with him anyway.

As he slipped from the broom Tonks, numb as she was, somehow was able to sense it. She did her best to stop him, holding his arms close to her. But even she couldn't hold tight enough in the wet weather and he began to slip. She yelled into the wind, as loudly as she could manage, hoping he'd wake up. She didn't realize that he wasn't falling asleep. Her actions where enough, however, and they snapped some part of Harry's mind back to reality.

"You know," he slurred, flipping his head over her shoulder, and talking into her ear, "you're really nice to me. Not like any of the other adults I know. Maybe you should make people take lessons or something." His voice was just loud enough, and he was just close enough that, above the wind Tonks heard his voice but not what he said.

She immediately identified what was happening to Harry and gripped him tighter. "You've got hypothermia." She said, hoping that he'd keep his right mind for a bit longer. She was trying to figure out where they were and she had no idea where it was they were truly headed. The spell she could use wasn't available because somehow the lightning was targeting them when magic was used.

The Auror training kicked in, she remembered being given information about such things as hypothermia. She knew she was more protected for several reasons, mainly that she had a completely unique body and it took far more stress than just cold to cause it to start shutting down. "We're going to stop. I'm not sure exactly where it is we're headed right now."

The words she spoke weren't any use to Harry, he couldn't really understand what it was that she was saying . His mind started drifting again, right back to the twinkling lights below them. They were getting close and the lights seemed even more magical as the closed the distance. Harry was enthralled by them and leaned over again, trying to get a better look.

This time Tonks did not feel him shift and only when the back end of the broom lost weight did Tonks figure out what was happening. She found herself almost sliding forwards off the broom too before she could compensate for the loss of Harry's weight. After taking control of the broom again she dove after Harry at tremendous speeds.

Harry on the other hand was in some sort of bliss, he was falling but he had no idea about his true plight. He found himself floating through the air, with the lights coming at him faster and faster. He didn't hear Tonks screaming after him, he didn't feel the chill of the wind whipping after him, trying to stop Tonks from reaching him.

Unfortunately they weren't far from the ground at all and Tonks had little time to get to Harry. She'd almost reached him when the ground became far too close to stay away from. Her numb hands reached out, trying to grip Harry, but the combination of slippery hands and a numbed grip only served to slow him slightly before he continued his plunge down. For a brief second he disappeared from Tonks' sight, but a splash followed, covering her in a layer of chilly water. She was unable to pull from the dive quick enough and soon followed Harry into the black water.

The explosion of water briefly incapacitated Tonks, but she was soon on top of the water again, struggling to stay afloat. "Harry!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, hoping he'd had enough senses to be able to swim. She searched the darkness for any sign of him at all, listening to hear a splash. There was nothing. Desperately she pulled her wand out again, worried that if she didn't try he'd die anyway.

Only a moment before she used her wand she felt something brush against her leg. Dropping her wand, and ridding herself of much of the clothing she was wearing she dove straight down, hands reaching about trying to locate Harry. She caught hold of a motionless hand and followed it down to the rest of the body. Then, wrapping herself around it, she pushed off the bottom of the pool with as much strength as she could.

It didn't take long for her to find the edge of the pool. With a surge of strength she was able to pull Harry from the pool and lay him out beside it. Her hands searched his neck for a pulse, but found nothing. He was not breathing either. Instinctively she searched for her wand, which was sitting at the bottom of the pool. When she could not find it her Auror training came up with alternatives. Leaning over him and concentrating the best she could she started to perform muggle CPR. Auror's were trained with every sort of medical abilities that were possible, magical or not. Tonks improvised just a bit, using the trick she'd been trying to teach Harry earlier in the day and pushing a little bit of magic into it every push of the hand and breath. It didn't take long for her to feel a pulse again, faint and slow, but still a pulse. She leaned him to his side as he coughed up the water he'd swallowed. His eyes stayed closed as Tonks hugged him, thankful that he had lived.

A faint sound of breathing could be heard as Tonks whispered to him that he'd be alright. Then, gently laying him back down she looked around, trying to determine where they were. She needed to get him inside and warm him up quickly or her efforts would be for nothing.

•


	3. Scars

Chapter 03

• Scars •

A soft humming woke Harry from his not so restful sleep. His whole body ached and at the same time felt extremely odd almost as if it were just awakening, tingling everywhere. He could see he was on a couch of some sort, but he could barely move to see any further than that.

The sound of humming continued and Harry moved slowly, turning his whole body very slowly into the right position so he could locate the source. He wasn't sure exactly what'd happened or where he was. No memories of the night before returned to him immediately.

Tonks was the one that was humming. In the dark it was hard to see her, but every few minutes a car would pass and the lights would be just enough to light up her face. Harry knew it was her the first time, even though she didn't look as he'd expect her to look. He could see she was staring out onto the street, while playing with a ring in her hand. It glinted whenever the lights from outside caught it. She seemed so normal, not like the Tonks he'd started to get to know.

As if she knew someone was watching her she glanced back to Harry. In the darkness apparently she couldn't see that he was watching her and she turned back, frowning, to the window. A brief glimpse of the previous night made Harry stop to think. He remembered pieces of the previous night, mostly just garbled flashes, but he was starting to piece things together.

A flash of lightning brought everything that he couldn't remember back. Everything that he could make sense of anyway. Some of the last things he'd done he couldn't remember at all. "The rain... it was cold." He whispered to himself as he remembered that it had been amazingly cold.

The words were just loud enough to reach Tonks' ear and the calming humming stopped as she turned to Harry. She was smiling, but he could see it was forced. When he moved to try and sit up, she was at his side immediately, holding his head down, making sure he didn't get up.

"Just rest." She said, easing his head back down. "You won't be able to do much more than that for a couple of days. There's some food in the kitchen, they don't have too much of a selection but it'll do. The fridge is almost empty." Her grin almost made Harry forget about the frown on her face earlier. She seemed so happy just being herself that it was hard to tell she was sad at all.

"I fell..." he recalled. He remembered seeing the lights and then the rush of flying, but very little else. Tonks frowned again and Harry changed the subject, he didn't like her frowning. "Where are we anyway?"

"Dunno." Tonks said, innocently enough, but her face told different with a mischievous grin. "Sure is a nice place though. Wish I'd grown up in place like this, no one would've ever found me when we played hide-and-seek, not that they could anyway. I only got caught once and that was because I kinda tripped over the table in the living room." She paused and her smile started to fade. "Sorry. I really talk too much most of the time, and then I usually say the wrong thing at the worst of times. I should just quit talking altogether. Or at least that's what Henry... Sorry. Babbling again."

It didn't really bother Harry at all, and he smiled at her and tried to shake his head, but found he was having a hard time even just doing that. Tonks didn't seem to have much coordination socially or physically. It occurred to Harry to ask her about his injuries, and why he was on the couch, but he had a feeling that it would make her sad again and he didn't like it when she was like that. If he was going to be stuck on the couch he wanted to talk and be happy for a while. The house they were in was extremely luxurious, not like anything Harry'd ever been in before, and even if they weren't invited they might as well enjoy there time however brief it was.

"Who's Henry?" Questioned Harry, trying to keep Tonks talking. It was relaxing to him.

Something about the question got to Tonks, and Harry almost regretted mentioning it. But she didn't frown, she smiled after some thought. "He was my accomplice when I was training to be an Auror. He and I came up with some very good pranks. But he graduated two years before me. After that... some things happened and well... he was injured by a child and never recovered. After he died everything changed, no names were released in fear of the child's life. I don't think it was an accident though, he was too smart to let something like that happen."

"Oh..." Harry said, looking away and trying not to think about death. It was still overwhelming to think about Sirius, and Harry didn't really want to deal with that at the moment.

It took Tonks a minute to figure out why Harry had looked away and she covered her mouth, sighing. "Sorry. Like I said, I always say the wrong thing at the most inopportune time." She looked around, trying to find something else to talk about, but finding nothing just sat quietly next to Harry.

The silence for Harry was almost as bad though, he wanted to talk about something. "I want to be an Auror too you know." He finally said, hoping it was enough to spark a conversation.

"Really?" Tonks said, perking up a great deal. "I had a hard time doing it, but you'd be great at it. You're probably the most talented 6th year I've ever met. I still have a hard time getting some of the spells right that you can already do."

When Madam Bones had been so surprised that Harry could form a corporeal Patronus Harry had felt as good. He smiled as best as possible. "I don't know if I'll be able to do it though, I don't think I did well enough on my OWLs. I tried, I really did, but I just hope that it was enough. Potions always got me a little mixed up. Hermione thinks I just don't study enough, but it's hard to remember them with Snape standing over your shoulder."

Tonks giggled. "It's cause that git Snape's teaching it. He's good at them, but he doesn't teach others so well. We had Mr. Grant teaching us for the first two years I was in potions and no one seemed to do as bad as when Snape was teaching after that. I was never much for potions either, but it was enough to get into the Auror's."

"What's it like being an Auror?" Harry asked, feeling as if Tonks might be able to answer the question more thoroughly than anyone else could. She was rather like him for the most part and he wanted to be an Auror so bad. He wasn't sure why anymore, but when Moody had suggested it a few years before it had stuck to him and he had never had any other thoughts about what he wanted to be.

When McGonagall had asked him what he wanted to be and he'd thought about it. There really wasn't any question in his mind, even after that evil woman Umbridge had tried to make sure he couldn't. It was amazing that she could have done so much. Thinking about the woman Harry rubbed his right hand, feeling the words that were forever inscribed into his hand now. Before school ended he'd tried on his own to remove them, looking through book after book, but never finding anything that might do it. When he thought about it he doubted that he would be able to remove them anyway, there were scars on all sorts of wizards and they weren't removed, so he doubted his would be able to be removed.

When Vernon had seen it of course he'd thought it proper and made sure that everyone else saw it too. Dudley had thought it was hilarious, but he seemed to have forgotten since then. For the most part, the year before he'd kept his hand in the pockets of his cloak and no one else had yet to discover the scars. Some of the other students had been put through the detention too. Harry was sure of it, but none of them had had to deal with the amount of time he had and so there were not permanent.

"What's wrong with your hand?" Tonks asked, when she saw him rubbing it. She was being concerned because of everything that had happened, and she'd yet to thoroughly check him over. Harry began to withdraw it, hiding it under the blanket. Tonks' Auror training came through and she was able to get a hold of it before it disappeared.

The silence was deafening as Tonks stared down at the words. After several seconds, Tonks' hands fell away. Harry pulled the hand back under the blanket, feeling ashamed of the scar. He didn't want anyone to see it at all, especially Tonks even though he wasn't sure why. Harry vividly remembered writing the lines and the pain that came with them.

"It's a ..." he tried to explain a possible reason that it was there, but nothing at all came to mind. He'd tried to come up with a reason before this happened, but nothing had been even remotely good enough.

"She did it, didn't she? That bitch." Tonks asked, her eyes watering. She did something with her hand and showed it to Harry. Slowly a scar appeared in front of him, and words. _I will obey the rules._

It didn't stay for long, but Harry saw it clearly before it faded.

Harry looked up at Tonks, mouth agape. Tonks smiled as best as possible. "She almost stopped me from being an Auror. The first year I was training I goofed off a lot, but they wanted me because I could be anyone or anything. They made her in charge of me, but it didn't work very well even after she made me do lines. I learned how to block the pain and I could make the scars go away. But until then..." She took a deep breath. "She's an evil woman. She never liked me because father was muggle-born. She said I had bad blood all the time."

Harry force himself not to cry, he had a hard enough time as it was. "Don't tell anyone." Harry choked.

Tonks sniffled and then was gone in the blink of an eye. Harry heard something fall in another room, and a muted curse from Tonks. He wasn't sure why she'd left, but it made him more comfortable when she had. He didn't want to talk about it, too came to mind when things like that were brought up.

The comforting feeling was short-lived. Harry started to look around again, feeling very self-conscious about where he was. The muggle household was where someone else lived, and even if they weren't there at the moment it wasn't a good place to hang around.

Someone drove by again and the tainted lights from the headlights filled the room with odd looking shadows, creeping on the wall. Harry usually didn't feel bothered by shadows, but after the attack at his home he wasn't sure what might be after them. He shivered and pulled the blanket tighter around himself, hoping Tonks wouldn't be gone for long.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Harry, Tonks was in the next room, head hung down and trying to keep from crying. She didn't want Harry to see her cry, and that's why she'd left the room. She was well aware of everything that was going on around them. Her memories were as bad, if not worse than Harry's dealing with Umbridge. She more than hated the woman, on her own personal list the woman was next to Voldemort, and only because Voldemort had killed people precious to her, like Lilly and James along with countless other people.

•

"Tonks?" Harry asked the next day, while Tonks was searching for food. Harry could move around a little but Tonks refused to let him go anywhere until he'd healed more. "How did you know you were a metamorphmagus?"

"You want to be one, don't you?" She asked, as a can fell off the counter and onto her foot. The words that followed made Harry laugh inside, but his face still kept straight. She was trying to keep from saying anything improper and was having a difficult time doing it. "I remember you said that last year." She added, before just giving up on making something complicated and pulling down a bag of chips.

"Yeah, I just... it'd make things easier sometimes. In the muggle world no one knows who I am, and I like it that way, I'm no different from anyone else. But in the magical world... well everyone knows who I am as soon as they see the scar. I hate being famous for something I didn't even do." He smirked again, finding it hard to talk serious with Tonks was trying to open the bag. It was giving her a difficult time.

Giving up on doing it herself, Tonks brought in the bag and handed it to Harry, hoping he'd open it for her. "You know, sometimes I wish no one knew about what I could do. They don't ever want me because of anything else I can do, it's only because I have this stupid ability. It is nice to have, to be able to become a different person so that no one knows who you are. I never really was able to hide that well though; they could always pick me out."

Using his hands, which were freed from the blanket, Harry pulled the top apart for Tonks, slowly so she could see how he'd done it. "I thought your father was a muggle-born?" He asked, wondering why she couldn't even figure out how to open the chips.

"Ah, yeah, well..." She scratched her head. "When mum swept him up he didn't bring much of the world with him, he likes the way magic works a lot more. Learned to use a tele when I was young, but mum got rid if it ages ago."

Tonks poured the chips into two bowls and handed one to Harry. "I'll make something later." She said.

Harry, having some of her prior cooking welcomed the chips as an alternative. "So there's no way I can become an metamorphmagus at all?"

"Nope, it'd be like surviving Avada... well, no, you survived I guess. But, the only time I've heard of it is in stories mum used to tell me. Stories about some of our family that had the ability, she doesn't, but my great gran did. Some of the stories are just made up though, and I think that when she talks about someone else getting it, it's just a bunch of rubbish. It's always said in books that the only way to get it is to be born to it and unless you have been it isn't going to happen. Some people don't know though. I only found out when Johnny Frericks said he only liked blondes and the next morning when I woke up my hair was blonde. Mum had never mentioned it before, but when she saw what'd happened she told me all about what I could do. Took me a while to learn to control it, she didn't know no one else that was a metamorphmagus so I had to learn by myself."

Harry closed his eyes, he'd had some sort of remote hope that maybe he was one, even though he knew hoping wasn't enough to make it true.

There was a long rift of silence and Harry's body got the best of him, taking into a deep sleep.

Tonks on the other hand felt comfortable in the silence, it was unknown to her and she rather enjoyed it. She wanted to make Harry feel better and she didn't know why, it was more than just a sense of duty. For hours she combated sleep and thought about how she might be able to help Harry, in some ways he was so much like her, but in other ways he was so different.

Harry woke to humming this time and the clank of pans. Tonks mumbled a curse under her breath and Harry smiled, she was probably trying (unsuccessfully) to be quiet.

"I could teach you, you know." Tonks said when she saw Harry's eyes open from the kitchen, she left the kitchen and headed into the living room to talk to Harry. "...how to be an Auror and all. Everything I know I'll teach you."

"Really?" Harry asked, smiling slightly. He could move his arms now and he had them outside the blanket had been trying to unsuccessfully to unwrap himself. Tonks seemed to have charmed it or tied it shut and, after several time he quit trying. Now he was feeling good again, energetic to say the least. "You'd really teach me to be an Auror?" He asked again, excited at the prospect of learning the secrets of the Aurors.

Tonks lips turned up slightly, and he assumed she was smiling, which was a good sign. She had moved over to the couch that he was on and was sitting up against it, tired, but not daring to sleep. So far Harry hadn't seen her sleep since they'd come to this house. She was awake every time he woke up, usually with some sort of soup she'd concocted. None of it was really that bad, it was better than what he'd gotten at home, but it was far from the best he'd ever had. Her head tilted back and she turned slightly, giving Harry an uneasy feeling.

"There are some thing I can't teach you, but it's only because I don't know how to teach them or I don't know how they're done. They gave us some special stuff too that I probably can't give you either. I'll do as much as I can though. Just don't tell anyone, I could get in a lot of trouble if they knew I were teaching stuff to you. Dumbledore even told me not to show you anything. I don't know why, he's usually pretty nice about things but I think he's wrong to make sure you don't know anything, that's why I'm doing this. I saw what happened at the..." she trailed off and then started again, not continuing the sentence even though Harry'd known where it was leadng. "Anyway, just don't tell anyone, alright?"

Harry eagerly agreed with her, he'd never tell anyone about what she was teaching him. He asked the very next thing that came to his mind. "Can I start now? I know I can't get up, but is there something I can do, isn't there?"

There was a silence as Tonks turned and looked around the room, Harry wondered what it was she was going to have him do. She was obviously trying to see if the room would be good enough, maybe he'd be learning something that would require a lot of space even if he was stuck on the couch.

Finally Tonks reached down near the fireplace and grabbed something from within the logs that were neatly stacked there. She handed the object to Harry with a smile. "Here. Make this grow again."

Confused Harry stared at the twig that was in his hand. It was about 3 inches long, and was so dry it was brittle. There was no way he'd be able to make it sprout, it'd been dead for a long time. "But, that's impossible. Can you do it?" He asked.

"Harry, when you can make that sprout I'll teach you something else. But until then you have to learn everything you can by yourself. Understand?" Tonks said firmly, she wasn't making the lesson easy. Harry wondered how he would make it sprout, maybe it was some sort of trick and she was testing him. He didn't understand. He thought for several minutes before coming to a conclusion, he would need a potion to do it, but why would Tonks give him something to do that he couldn't?

An hour later Harry, still trying to figure out the problem, looked to Tonks. She'd left the room for a while but had also returned, and was quietly sitting on the floor of the room across from him. "How?" He asked; puzzled about what exactly she wanted him to do. She had said it plainly, but it still was extremely confusing.

"That's part of the problem." She said grinning. "You will understand when you figure it out."

Deepening his resolve to somehow get the branch to grow Harry lost himself in thought. Tonks watched him from the other room, unusually quiet. She had taken this test, and she remembered how difficult it was. She wondered how difficult it was going to be for him.

Hours past and Harry stared straight at the branch, trying to dredge up every possibility there was. It was dead, so that left out anything non-magical. That meant he had to real choices, potion or magic. Given that Tonks had told him that he could do it while he waited to get better, potions were out of the question. It took nearly two hours for Harry to get that far.

No wand.

Tonks hadn't given him his wand back, Harry knew she had it, even though she hadn't mentioned it. When he started thinking about his wand he started to wonder where the rest of his clothing had gone. They hadn't been there when he'd woken; he hadn't been wearing much at all.

A vivid image of Tonks removing his clothing filled Harry's mind and the thought of making the stick grow vanished. His whole face turned a brilliant red, having Tonks do such a thing made him more than just uncomfortable. His grip tightened and he closed his eyes, wishing it wouldn't've happened.

It was bad enough, being stuck on the couch and making Tonks take care of him, but being sick like he was and making her do such things with him was more than just a little embarrassing.

Slowly the fact that it had happened already, and there was nothing he could do about it, filled him. He was going to have to get better quicker so that they could go to the Orders Headquarters. He could almost now as it was, enough that he might be able to walk he hoped that within a day he'd be almost completely healed.

A deep inhale from Tonks, somewhere nearby, made Harry open his eyes. He gasped too when he saw the reason she'd been surprised. In his hands was a miniature tree. The branch, no longer than 4 inches, was now almost a foot tall, roots had sprung from underneath Harry's hand and small branches had formed with tiny green needles covering it already.

Startled beyond belief, Harry dropped the miniature tree. Tonks, who had snuck up on Harry while his eyes were closed, grabbed it before it finished its fall. She seemed almost as surprised as he was, but she had her wits about her still.

"It... grew." She said awkwardly, gawking at the tree. "It really grew."

Tonks put it down gently on a table and grabbed another stick from the wood pile next to the fireplace. "This one too. Just one more time."

Harry was still having a hard time with the fact that he'd made the first one grow. It had taken a few seconds and he wasn't sure exactly what he'd done to make it grow, it just did almost by itself. Taking the second stick Harry stared at it, trying to do it again. He had absolutely no luck for the next several minutes while he tried everything he could think of that he'd done. His mind was so focused on doing it again that he didn't see Tonks pull a bowl from the cabinet in the kitchen and place the tree inside it. She even went as far as going outside and getting some soil to pack around it.

"I can't do it again." Harry finally revealed, hoping that it wouldn't matter. He wanted to learn to fight, not to make things grow. When he looked up to Tonks she was watering the now planted miniature tree.

At first she didn't respond, she finished soaking the soil to insure the plant would take root, then put it on the table near the couch. "Alright. How did you do it the first time?" She asked, now controlling the surprise she was still feeling.

"Don't know." Harry revealed, staring at the tree. "It just happened, I wasn't even trying. How'd you do it the first time?"

Tonks, who seemed to be caught off guard by the question took a moment before she answered. "I can't tell you, everyone has to do it their own way. If I make it easier by answering then you won't be able to understand why you have to do it. But you did it, sort of, you'll have to do it again before I show you everything but I promised I'd show you more when you'd done it so I will as soon as you're all better."

Eagerly Harry nodded, but Tonks turned around to him. Pulling her wand out, she whispered a spell. He quickly went back to sleep.

•


	4. Death

Chapter 04

• Death •

Awakening rather abruptly Harry looked around, not feeling very comfortable with his surroundings. He could hear yelling, and the prancing of footsteps from overhead as people rushed through the Headquarters of the Order.

He'd been back for several days now spending most of the time sleeping and recovering as per Tonks's orders. The last time he'd fallen asleep in the muggle house Tonks had used a charm on him. Apparently they had traced the magic and showed up soon after. He awoke in the bed he'd slept in the summer before, without the company of Ron, or anyone for that matter.

Tonks came around, and there were a fresh set of glasses on his bed stand but he was locked and once again he was confined. It always seemed to be like this. But, no one had come to speak to him other than Tonks and until last night the door had stayed locked.

Now, all of the candles in his room were burning with an intense flame, and the fireplace flickered out of control, casting an intense eerie light on the room. His foggy, sleep encrusted mind, came instantly awake because of the tune of the things that were around him.

Though he was still slightly weakened from his prior accident, mostly in his own mind, he easily hopped out of bed and grabbed his glasses from the stand. He bolted from the room, looking for someone to find out what was happening. For a moment he wished for Tonks at his side, he'd feel much safer with her there.

Somewhere an alarm rang out and Harry flinched, wondering what exactly was wrong. He tensed as he heard footsteps heading his way. Immediately he wondered if it was friend or foe, and deciding he'd rather find out first he slipped into the shadows of a gruesome serpent pillar that stood in the hallway.

The hallways seemed to darken as the footsteps approached. Finally they flickered and died as the door to the hallway opened. "_Lumos_." Someone whispered and the hall lit up again, but Harry was still hidden by the pillar.

"Harry?" The figure whispered, trying to see if someone was ahead of her.

"Tonks?" He asked, not sure if it was truly her. He stepped out from around the pillar to reveal himself and get a better look at her. She was in another disguise of sorts. Her long black hair flowed around her porcelain colored skin, ending mid way down her back. Her now cinnamon colored eyes sparkled in the flickering of the magical light. Harry felt slightly attracted to her again and took a moment to gawk.

Tonks heard something and waved him to the side, turning to the person who was making their way up behind her. Harry dropped to the ground, peering out from the bottom of the statue so he couldn't be seen so easily. He noticed that Tonks seemed to have been woken suddenly too, she was also dressed in her pajamas. Harry never pictured her wearing a black silk kimono to bed, and he thought it fit her even though he had only seen it on the tele with Japanese woman wearing them.

The footsteps stopped and then padded away. Harry could see Tonks visibly relax but as she turned to him, he could see worry still coating her face. The young wizard had a feeling something horrible was going on, and he was even scared to ask.

"What's going..." Harry he finally started, but he was interrupted before he could finish his question.

"Listen," Tonks started, her voice grim, "we've really got problems. But we have to get moving, we can talk on the way."

Gripping Harry's free arm she yanked him along back down the hallway. They set out at a brisk trot, keeping in the shadows. Out of the hall and into one of the many sitting rooms that existed in Grimwald manor.

Plush chairs lined the walls and a large meeting table sat in the center of the room. Deep red carpeting covered the floor and above them hung an expensive crystal chandler which cast a strange light on the room. Harry hadn't gotten around much since he'd been back and before Tonks pulled him off he got a good look of the room. They'd definitely done a lot since the year before.

Tonks took a breath and then pulled him again. Around the table and other scattered objects that seemed to have been placed in their way. She paused again on the other side of the room, peering out the door and then dragging Harry through the hall.

"Alright, here's what going on." Tonks said, stopping again and looking around before they entered into a room that Harry'd never been in. "Fifteen minutes ago a report came in, Death Eaters were attacking a small wizarding village near Stromness. You know where that is, right?"

Harry's face scrunched up in thought. He'd heard of the town before but could only recall the name, nothing else about it. "Maybe?"

Tonks just shook her head, smiling at him. "It's a little town on the eastern shore of the Orkney Islands. You do know where those are, right?" She asked him, semi-sarcastically, but not mean.

She halted again, pushing the doors open extremely slowly, her mind focused on what was ahead for the moment. Harry had a good idea of where they were going. The operations room, located near the center of the house behind a mirrored wall. It was still a good distance away, and he wasn't positive yet, but it was likely the safest place for them to be. How he'd found out about it was naturally a mystery and he wouldn't let Tonks know he knew about it.

"In here," she whispered, pulling him in and gently shutting the door, holding the latch so it wouldn't click. The sound of pounding footsteps echoed in the hall and Tonks held herself up against the wall incase they cam bursting in the door. Whoever it was continued on and Tonks looked across the room.

"So, naturally we respond to the threat immediately. According to the report the Aurors we're being beaten down quickly and so we sent everything we could. They all Portkeyed into the thick of things. It was a quick job, and Dumbledore went with them. Sounds simple, right?" She asked, her eyes tracing over the room again, looking for something Harry didn't see. "Well, they get there and there was nothing abnormal there, nothing but anti-Apparation wards everywhere for 20 kilometers every direction. They'd even blocked Portkeys."

Harry's eyes grew round, thinking about what it meant. Voldemort was preparing to do something, and he'd trapped a good deal of the order for the time being.

Tonks jetted across the room again, pulling Harry with her. She didn't seem to bother a single thing in the room as she might've under normal circumstances. She stopped in front of a bookshelf on the far wall and her eyes read the title of several before she finally reached out and pulled one from the shelf. Harry heard a sliding noise, but nothing changed. Tonks then replace the book and pulled a second away from the rest.

Under them an opening appeared and Harry could vaguely make out stairs. "Down." She whispered. Harry followed her instructions, heading down into the darkness. Behind them the opening slid closed again and Harry raised his wand. Tonks grabbed his wrist before he could whisper the spell. "Not here, just be careful not to fall."

Trusting in whatever Tonks was doing Harry nodded.

"A few of the members were able to procure some broomsticks. They tried to use Floo powder, but it seems that the whole network is all but shut down. I can't get a hold of Dumbledore anymore either. I don't know how they know it, but everything we do seems to be predicted, except for how Dumbledore got a hold of me. They'd have never thought to cut the muggle phones in the area. Gene had one installed a few weeks ago, seems to work great."

A cold chill ran through Harry as he thought about the situation they were in. "It was a trap." Harry said coldly. "They were smarter than us, they played us out to be fools and we fell for every bit of it."

"Yeah." Tonks nodded, using her hands to feel the wall for something. "We got a Death Eater infestation and nobody's hear to help us out."

"Nobody?" Harry gasped. "No one at all? How did they pull that off, I thought that Dumbledore required four people in this place at all times?"

Finding what she was looking for Tonks grasped a stone and pushed it down the wall until it made a slight hissing sound. "Well you and I, Worth and Aled. He wasn't exactly expecting us to have to defend the fort."

Harry dropped his head. "So it's up to you and I, isn't it? Aled'll never make it across the room, she can barely walk as it is. Worth'll give them a fight, but he won't make it far in his wheelchair even if it's charmed."

Tonks sighed and nodded, agreeing with him as she peeked through what seemed like a stonewall. "We have to get to the operations room, they shouldn't know where it is and for the time being it's the safest place." She said, grim determination filling her voice. "It's a big place, and they probably don't know their way around to well so it'll take them a while to search it."

"It's clear. Come on." Tonks said as she pulled Harry through the rock wall. "We're not far from it at all."

"But as close as you'll ever get." A voice wheezed. Tonks and Harry both spun around to the corner of the room, where the voice had come from. No one was visible. "Don't move." It spoke again. Harry's eyes searched for signs of where the person was standing, but could see nothing. They were in a room with a wooden floor and the person didn't seem to be moving so no odd light refraction occurred.

"I've been told that it doesn't matter how I bring the both of you in, dead or alive. They said not to kill you unless you struggle though, so please make this easier on me, allow me the pleasure of killing you."

Tonks sighed loudly and her wand clattered to the ground. "Good, the voice said. Now, the boys' as well."

Not wanting to loose his wand Harry refused to drop it, it was the only edge he had. Gripping it tighter he shook his head, he refused to allow it to happen.

"You have only a few moments before your stubbornness kills your beautiful companion." The voice said. It had moved its position away from the corner, a little closer to them. Harry's eyes shifted to try and track the person who was holding them captive.

Hesitating for only a second he already knew his answer. The thought of endangering Tonks at all was too much. He didn't ever want to see her injured.

"Now." The voice demanded and Harry's keen eyes, used to picked up the glimmer of a snitch caught the shimmer of the moving invisibility cloak. Harry nodded and dropped to a knee, putting his wand slowly on the ground. He started to lift again, and as his hand came away from the wand, but instead of standing he launched himself forward, taking one quick step. He was trying to catch the man off guard. There was no real response to the movement and so Harry continued forward, putting everything he had into his attack.

There was no hesitation at all, Harry knew what would happen if they were captured. He'd be taken to Voldemort and killed or tortured. Voldemort was the only one who could kill him, Dumbledore has said so. Harry trusted in Dumbledore and the prophecy more than anything right now, because if it was true this person would not be able to kill him as he had warned.

There was a cry out and a brief shuffle. Harry adjusted his course just before he made contact, trying to compensate for the movement. Even being as light as he was Harry was able to bowl the legs out from under him, knocking the individual over and intertwining Harry in the invisibility cloak he'd been using.

Behind him he could hear Tonks yell a spell to freeze the man, which was easier when he was dazed and visible. Her bare feet padded across the floor and she helped Harry stand, unwrapping the cloak from around him. When he'd stood he grinned at her, looking for a thank you.

What he got was not what he'd hoped for. She looked angry at him, and he started to ask why when she slapped him across the back of the head. "Don't you _ever_ do that again. He could have killed you. You ever do that again and I'll wring your neck, understand?"

"But..." Harry tried to say.

"No buts. Don't you dare try and kill yourself."

Tonks finished tying up the man and then relieved him of his wand and took the invisibility cloak, handing both to Harry. "I've got an extra wand up my sleeve, keep one hidden in case we're forced to give them up again. Understand?" She said, looking about the room again, even more observant than before.

Nodding Harry flipped the invisibility cloak out and pulled it over himself. He wasn't all that much shorter than Tonks as it was and she was easily able to slip under it. "Keep absolutely silent." He told her, he was used to using the invisibility cloak more than a lot of people.

_"Silencio." _Tonks said as Harry pulled the coat tighter around them.

It was smart, silencing them so that others would not be able to hear. Harry'd never really thought of it before, he'd always been silent under it anyway.

"Now we have to get to the room, there's a Portkey there that'll take us away from here, somewhere that's safer." She whispered, still staying quiet even though she'd put the silencing spell on them.

Squeezing her hand was enough of a response and they hurried forward, not nearly as careful as before. As they marched out of a particular room Harry yanked Tonks from going any further. He felt a horrible pain ring through his scar and with it a feeling of dread. Not more than a few seconds after stopping the door at the end of the hall burst open. Through the door the black cloaks and white masks of the Death Eaters marched through, several. Each with wand pointed ahead. They moved quickly, straight down the hall.

Had the entered the hallway they would have had no escape. They were safe only momentarily. Another five Death Eaters followed them, kicking in a door at a time and firing an unknown curse into each room. Tonks' grip tightened on Harry's shoulder as she moved backwards.

"Up the ladder." She whispered in his ear.

It took some cooperation to get up the ladder and keep the invisibility cloak on, and it was too close to the door for Harry to feel comfortable. If they should be discovered they'd have not a bit of chance of escaping. They stopped near the top and waited, almost without breath while the shouting neared.

Two Death Eaters stepped through the door, looking around. They fired their curse into the center of the room. Everything turned a blue color and then normal again. Harry wasn't sure what it was they were doing, but he was scared to know. Tonks seemed frightened of it.

A second later, after they seemed to have examined the room both turned to leave. Harry saw one of them slow slightly and start to point his wand up. Tonks reacted quicker than Harry.

"_Expelliarmus_." She yelled, right into Harry's ear. The man did not hear it, but he was blown flat into the ground and his wand flew out to the other side of the room. Harry used the same spell on the first man, who had barely enough time to react as it was.

The second man was also floored, but his wand rose to Harry's hand, which was stretched outside the cloak. A shout from the hallway alerted the rest of the Death Eaters to their location. "Don't you dare move." Tonks said, just before dropping out from under Harry to the ground, making her way away from the ladder.

A dozen Death Eaters appeared, barreled foolishly through the door, wands pointed at Tonks. She was already ready though and put a leglocking curse on the first two. Harry wondered why she was using something so basic. However, the effect was that the first two Death Eaters stumbled, and with them nearly all of the others who could not stop moving.

Some of the Death Eaters had been smart though, and had waited until the first of them were through the door. The appeared in the doorway, wand pointed, and curses flying before Tonks could get hers off. She tried to get out of the way to avoid them, but was unable to. The other Death Eaters rose while she was in pain. Tonks was in less pain than she seemed, and when she rolled to her side groaning barely a moment passed before she was on her feet and running for the other door.

Three Death Eaters were able to pursue her easily, the other had a hard time moving over each other. Harry watched in despair as the last of the Death Eaters were able to get to their feet and together they headed after Tonks. Remembering Tonks slapping him upside the head, Harry faltered on making a decision for a second, but not for long. Just before the rest of the Death Eaters made it through the door Harry raised his wand and pointed at the bookshelf next to the door "_EVERTO_!" He screamed.

The blast from the bookshelf demolished the bookshelf, and some of the wall. The Death Eaters jumped back away from the door as books rained down upon them. Harry looked around, and seeing that the shelves were not built into the walls he had an idea.

Jumping from his position on the ladder he darted across to the other side, where he had a better shot at the bookshelf next to the door. "_TRAXI!_" He screamed again at the top of his lungs, hoping it would be enough, the bookshelf was quite heavy.

He remembered the spell from 4th year when Hermione had helped him learn Accio. They'd looked for something that might work better, and _traxi_ was similar, but usually used to haul things that were heavy.

The whole bookshelf slid forward slowly and the confused Death Eaters stepped backwards, trying to decide what to do about the bookcase. The spell didn't work as Harry'd hoped, the bookshelf continued to slide toward him, rumbling and ripping into the wooden floor as it did, but doing nothing to stop them. One of them scoffed at it and worked on the door again, having enough space the others ignored it momentarily too.

Thinking fast Harry focused on a book on the bottom shelf. "_EXTUNDO_." He yelled; trying to stay focused on that one point. Meanwhile two of the Death Eaters seemed to have spotted his location, even under the cloak and they raised their wands. _"Crucio!" _Both yelled at the same time. Harry was hit flat on, because he was more focused on the bookshelf.

At the same time, behind them the bookshelf stopped and rumbled forward, deciding instead to shake violently. One of the Death Eaters dropped his curse to turn and see what was going on. The seven others, who were making quick work of clearing the doorway didn't seem to notice the bookshelf stop.

Finally, the last moment that Harry could hold his head up he saw the bookshelf folded over, unable to take the curses that were both pulling and pushing against it. It toppled forward, the bottom swinging out behind it. Under it, the surprised Death Eaters were crushed before they could take any actions, it was far too large to move out from under.

Still, he dropped to his knees, bending over in agony even after the second Death Eaters curse was lifted. His whole body tingled sharply crying out in pain.

For several minutes Harry himself up on his knees, trying not to fall over completely. Finally the pain lessened and he was able to stand shakily. The cloak around him had slipped to the side, leaving half his body uncovered. Tonks came running back into the room through the door they'd never made it through. She looked around at the half-demolished room and her eyes widened. When she caught site of Harry she ran to him and grabbed him tightly. He groaned, the pain of the curse seemed to have bruised his whole body.

More gently this time Tonks tried to pull the limping Harry behind her. She did her best to pull the cloak back over them, but it didn't stay well. "I told you I'd take care of them." She snapped at him, but she didn't seem all that angry at the moment.

Two more Death Eaters were standing at the end of the hallway as they exited. The invisibility cloak was not enough to keep them from being seen, it seemed most of its effects had been nulled. _"Ecio!" _one of them shouted and together Harry and Tonks were thrown violently backwards, down the hallway. Harry was unable to stand, but Tonks did, trying to fight them. _"Ecio!" _The voice shouted out again and she was thrown further back down the hall.

The second of the Death Eaters laughed. Harry looked up to see McNair smiling evilly. "Don't move Potter. You've been too much trouble already."

Giving in to the pain Harry just laid there, unable to do much anyway. They walked forward towards Harry. "Don't." Tonks growled from behind. Both men stopped dead in their tracks, looking up to Tonks.

"You're in a loosing position Auror." One of them said, sneering. Harry was angry at them for being so stupid, they should have waited until he had more energy.

Tonks did something and the men backed away a few steps. "You wouldn't." One of them said.

"I'll do what's necessary to protect Harry." He could hear her say. The Death Eaters took another step back and she continued. "Rathens. You're slime you know that, no matter how you put it, you're slime and you always will be."

"Tonks..." One of the men said, having much more confidence suddenly.

"Yes." She returned and Harry could feel something touch his foot. She bumped it again and Harry slowly tried to get to his feet. He wasn't going to let her help him, because she'd be in a loosing position again if she did. Whatever it was she was using to hold them back surely wasn't enough to keep them back if she looked away.

As quickly as possible he pulled himself to his feet, the pain almost overtaking him before he did. He resisted and after a few restful moments finished standing.

"So," Harry whispered, smiling at Tonks, keeping his face pointed away from the Death Eaters so that they couldn't see what pain he was in. "Shall we go?"

He could see in one hand Tonks was holding out a necklace from her neck, and in the other her wand was still pointed at the men.

Tonks nodded and took one step backwards, waiting for Harry to follow. Slowly, one step at a time the backed down the hall until they were almost at the end. He could hear the men whispering harshly to each other. One of them yelled out something and started to say something Harry had heard many times before. _"Avada Kedavra." _

Whoever it was aimed at, Harry didn't care. He'd seen Sirius die, he'd seen Cedric die and he wasn't about to let someone else he knew die again. Whether it was absolute trust or absolute stupidity he stood as straight as possible and jumped towards Tonks, trying to keep himself covering most of the hall.

The curse struck from behind him, near the top of his neck. Harry arched from the pain as it traveled through his whole body almost instantly. His head reeled from the explosion that had seemed to be echoing through his whole body, more painful each time. He didn't hear much, nor did he see the curse arch backwards as if it had hit a mirror. The hallway turned into a ball of golden light and each of the people, except Harry, were brought to their knees. Harry couldn't help but stand, his muscles had tightened so much that he could move an inch.

The green light that connected the two men spread, jumping between the second man and then to Tonks. Harry tried to scream in pain, but still his body would not respond. It hurt more, not being able to let it out and for a moment he thought that it might be better to die.

That moment passed. With it went the light, and not just from that room. The whole house darkened. Harry collapsed somewhere between relief and pain. He was only halfway conscious when Tonks lifted him, with great effort, onto her shoulders and dragged him through the blackened house and down the stairs. He could feel blood seeping down his back and soaking the robe he was wearing. His pain was so great that even to open his mouth made him arch again.

So, relaxing, he let Tonks drag him on her shoulders down the hall, past the two men. One seemed half conscious, the other seemed to have died. Harry felt loss, even though they'd tried to hurt him they were still human and deserved better than death.

Down one more stairwell, which hurt incredibly. No matter how much Tonks tried to relieve his pain she could do nothing. Then, a few steps into a deserted hallway Tonks stood in front of a mirror. She reached into it, whispering a secret word as she did and then stepped through it.

On the other side Tonks laid Harry out on the ground gently. "Are you alright?" She asked, her horribly dirty face filled with concern.

Drawing in a larger breath than he'd been taken Harry managed to breathe out a yes. Tonks didn't believe him and she pulled away his cloak, slowly undressing him. "You... saved me." She said as she brought a medical kit from the wall. "You jumped in front of the killing curse. No one's ever done anything like that for me."

Rather than try to respond Harry just let it go. He'd have done it for anyone he knew, he would rather die himself than see someone else precious to him be taken. It had gone remarkably well, better than he dared imagined. Whatever his mother had done to keep him alive was still working, and the only person that could void it was Voldemort himself because the blood that ran through his veins was also Harry's.

Tonks continued talking, working on him as she did. When she stopped talking he focused up on her, and he could see dread in her eyes. She reached down, near his face, but continued past it, touching the ground next to him. When she drew her hand back it was coated in thick red blood. He remembered it flowing down his back, but now he could no longer feel it.

"We have to get you somewhere else. I can't fix all of this." She said to him, waiting for a response. Harry tried to nod, but barely was able to move his head at all.

"Do... it." He forced himself to breathe out.

Tonks nodded and moved to the side, somewhere he couldn't see, and returned holding long chain. At the end of the chain hung a golden phoenix. "Harry, were we're going... Don't do anything at all before you ask me, alright? Not a single thing. I'll try and be there the whole time."

Not being able to answer Tonks just accepted he agreed and dropped the phoenix into his hand, pushing hers against it. Harry felt a familiar jerking sensation of the Portkey as it transported him to some unknown place, one he'd already been warned about.

•


	5. Icaria

Chapter 05

• Icaria •

"Dolt," Tonks laughed merrily at Harry as he tumbled down the grassy hill. She strolled along at a leisurely pace, not in any big rush at all. That's what this island, Icaria, was for her, a place to get away from the rest of the world. After everything that had happened she didn't mind sharing it with him.

Tonks smiled at seeing Harry so light-hearted and childlike for once. He seemed to be enjoying the island far more than anywhere else he had ever been. Not that he'd actually ever been anywhere outside of Hogwarts or Privet Drive. Tonks had heard enough about his life to be disgusted with the muggles he had for relatives.

Harry finally came to a dizzying stop near the bottom of the hill, he just laid there unmoving but laughing happily. His hair was even more a mess than usual with bits of grass and leaves added to the look.

A brief glimpse at the nape of his neck caused Tonks to stiffen for a moment. Just two days prior, Harry had suffered through what she expected was the worst pain imaginable. Just by looking at the scar it was obvious that it had caused him a great deal of pain; she couldn't begin to comprehend it. From a central point, hundreds of tiny lines snaked outwards, covering nearly the whole back of his neck.

The most inconceivable thing was that he'd done it for her by putting himself between her and instant death. As she thought about it for the hundredth time, the idea of it made Tonks feel warm inside. He had survived, yes, and even though she wasn't sure if he'd known he would survive, it didn't matter. He had taken that step and in her mind it was that deed that set him apart from everyone else she knew. It was what made Harry so special, his willingness to sacrifice anything to protect his friends.

Tonks caught up to him and then passed by, walking to the cliff that dropped into the ocean. The rock face was a sheer drop nearly five hundred feet straight down into the foamy surf. Of course the height didn't bother someone who'd spent most of her life with a broom between her legs. She sat down, legs over the side and looked out towards the horizon. "Watch," she said quietly as Harry joined her, and pointed out towards the reef which extended right up to the cliff they were sitting on.

"Sometimes, when the sun's going down, the mermaids come out and sing."

Sitting next to Tonks, cheeks a rosy red from running around, Harry pulled on his glasses and stared out at the water. He hadn't seen Icaria's mermaids yet, and he was interested to see what they looked like. According to Tonks, they were nothing like the merfolk who inhabited the murky lake below Hogwarts.

Under the glimmer of the sun's last rays Harry could see several lithe shapes gliding along the crystal-clear ocean bottom, moving almost effortlessly. A head popped out of the water and turned towards the sun, then it was gone again. Soon after it reemerged, this time near one of the stones that littered the reef. She pulled herself onto the rock, basking in the dying glow of the sun.

A sweet melody rose from the water, slow, yet stirring. Harry could not ever remember hearing something that made him feel so at peace. Another voice joined in the chorus and Harry noticed that while he was lost in the melody two more mermaids had pulled themselves onto the rocks.

The sound was unforgettable and Harry could barely keep his eyes on the golden sun, as it set beyond them. Before the sun had fully set several more mermaids joined the assembly, at least a dozen more by his nearest count. Harry felt saddened when the sun had fully set and their voices slowly faded away into the twilight.

He couldn't see them too well in the dark, the half-moon was hiding behind the clouds. What he could hear was the water stirring as, one by one, they slipped back down below the surface.

"I think I want to stay here." Harry told Tonks, laying on his back and watching the brightly lit stars. "It's peaceful. No one knows me; there aren't any Death Eaters to hurt me," he said, quietly. "Or you," he added sounding innocently enough.

Harry recalled briefly seeing a glimpse of the broom racing the day before. It wasn't Quidditch, but bloody hell if it didn't look at least as exciting. "It's fun here." He smiled wistfully thinking about how much he wanted to get into one of the races. "They do things I've never seen or heard of."

Tonks, who'd lain on her back next to Harry, sighed quietly. She hated to ruin it for Harry, but she knew he couldn't stay. His disguise, a quick change of hair color and some makeup to cover his scar, wouldn't be enough when the world found out that he was missing. She wasn't going to break it to him yet, he was having too much fun.

It was odd, after what had happened she couldn't understand how he could be so relaxed.. It was almost as if the events of the past few days never happened at all. Since the moment he'd been out of the hospital it was almost as if he'd forgotten everything that had gone bad and had just let go of the stress.

The medi-wizard she'd taken him to had asked her about the scar and spoke with her about the effects. He'd dropped the inquiry when she'd presented her Auror insignia, they didn't have any true law on the island, but they didn't ignore other law enforcement groups. All Tonks was able to get from him was that he couldn't quite figure out what it was.

It was definitely permanent; there was no way he knew of to get rid of it. Whatever it was that had done it, he believed it was a powerful spell. It also had a lasting effect on his whole body, in fact the effects were more than just physical. He was quite surprised when Harry had woken after sleeping only a couple of hours. He'd told Tonks that Harry should rest for several weeks, not do anything at all stressful to his body or mind. Assuming that was the only information she would get from him Tonks had obliviated him and taken Harry.

"Tonks?" Harry asked quietly.

Not having the resolve to ignore him, Tonks rolled her head to find herself looking right into his jade colored eyes. She felt emotion rise, looking into his eyes, but wasn't sure what to make of it. "Yes?" she half-croaked.

"Why wasn't Ron or his family at the Headquarters? Last year Mrs. Weasley had practically made it her own home."

Somewhat relieved at the question and still unsure of what she'd been feeling, she smiled. "It's safer for her to be at home right now. You-Know-Who knows that Mr. Weasley is a part of the order, but as for everyone else. well they're not targets yet as far as we know so we're trying to keep everything as normal as possible. Of course they've got guards on their house 24/7 but there's something else. Molly has got other things that need to be taken care of, she's expecting."

Harry blinked several times in the moonlight. Then, when the news fully struck him, his eyes opened wide. "She's what?" he asked, utterly surprised.

"Expecting," she said calmly. "She's not due for another five months, but it's best if she's at home, away from the action of headquarters." Tonks said, looking back up to the sky. The moon shone brilliantly here when the clouds didn't hide it, and she'd always enjoyed it even as a child. _It's a good thing too, with what happened at the headquarters..._ she thought to herself, but didn't say it aloud. She didn't want to have to bother Harry right now, she hated to make him sad at all.

Meanwhile, the prospect of Mrs. Weasley having another child struck Harry temporarily dumb. He counted her seven children off in his head. This would be her eighth. Confused at why she was having one now, after waiting so long Harry tried to form words to ask Tonks about it. The wizarding world was different, he knew that, it always seemed to have a surprise or two waiting for him. It occurred to him that the muggle age for having children might not be the same as the wizarding age, after all Dumbledore had once mentioned that Wizards often lived much longer lives than muggles.

Still searching for the right words, another thought came to him. She'd been pregnant long before school ended if she was due in five months. That meant that Ron, Ginny and the twins had been keeping it from him. The wonderings of the unique ways of the wizarding ways was quailed by the feeling Harry had of being put-out. He was slightly angry too, they could trust him, he wasn't about to tell anyone if they didn't want him to.

"Ron didn't tell me," he muttered.

"Relax Harry. He couldn't tell you, he didn't even know himself until he got home. Mrs. Weasley kept it from everyone even the order for a while. Dumbledore of course found out and made some changes. Not even the whole order knows, just a few people. I only happened to hear it."

From her look Harry got the distinct impression she was probably somewhere she shouldn't have been. "I probably shouldn't've told you. It'll get me into trouble if Dumbledore finds out I snitched," Tonks smiled, turning towards the sky and smiling. ".but I think he expects it in some way. That's why I got assigned to you once I was out of Saint Mungo's."

"Assigned to me?" Harry questioned, he didn't like feeling as if he'd been forced on her.

"Well. sort of. After Arabella was discovered we had to hide her, and someone had to replace her as a permanent watch for the time being. Dumbledore volunteered me right away. Not that I minded, I thought maybe we could get to know each other, maybe even be mates."

Truthfully, she'd wanted to do it before Dumbledore had volunteered her. When it was mentioned she'd almost jumped out of her seat to do it. However, she had restrained herself, knowing that seemed odd to offer. She was close enough in age that some people thought they might become too close and she'd tell him things she wasn't suppose to. It wasn't as if she cared. Harry was someone she really respected. She'd been watching him for over a year now, even keeping tabs occasionally at school. It was her job.

There was the problem of her clumsiness, but there had only been one incident that had almost given her away. When she was climbing through the opening into the Gryffindor common room, just a moment after Harry and Hermione had entered, she'd tripped and fallen through. Luckily one of the twins had come to her rescue. They immediately knew she was not the person she pretended to be, but other than watching her carefully, they said nothing.

•

Two days passed and Harry couldn't get enough of the island or his training. He was aptly paying attention to everything that Tonks taught him and though he didn't get it right away, he was trying hard. Tonks had started just as she'd been taught, an overview of everything, but then she'd changed her method.

On several of the many tasks she'd been assigned Lupin as her partner. She didn't mind him, she actually enjoyed his company because she had known him for longer than most of the other people in the order. He did, however, tend to tell stories and Harry was his favorite subject. He'd told her about teaching him and how he learned so Tonks tried just that, focusing on one particular thing.

At the moment, she was trying to teach him the art of disguise and blending with one's environment.

Harry wasn't doing too well though, and she could see his eyes drooping.

Climbing on top of the chair, Tonks grinned brightly and made a waving motion at Harry with her wand. "You're dead Potter," she tried to mutter as heinously as possible. It made Harry laugh, as she was nothing like the Death Eaters who'd tried to kill him, and she'd never be able to be like them. It was still funny though, seeing her trying to cheer him up like that.

"Alright. I died. Tell me again how to do it so I can keep trying, it can't be all that hard."

Tonks started to step down from the chair but her foot caught on the edge of the chair and she started to fall forward, arms flailing. Harry dropped his wand and moved as quickly as possible to catch her. Almost immediately, he found that he was far too small to stop her fall and she ended up on top of him, squirming to get back up.

It only took a moment for her to get back on her feet but Harry took longer. Tonks repeatedly apologized as she helped him stand but Harry just shook it off. "Let's just get back to doing what we were doing," he told her, not at all surprised she'd fallen and more embarrassed that he hadn't been able to stop her.

"Listen to me say it. I want you to listen _very_ carefully. When I'm done, replicate it exactly, accent and all. I'm going to do something new too, you're getting too used to hearing the same old thing., you've got to pick it up the first time." She paused, closed her eyes for a second and looked up at Harry. She changed the appearance of her whole face through a combination of many subtle changes. It was amazing to Harry that she could do it.

"No worries mate," she started, in a brilliant Australian accent. Then, winking at Harry she took a step down, and stared right into his eyes. ".you're just being a bit friendly. Ease up. We've got all night."

Harry replayed it over and over in his mind, trying to recall every minute thing she'd done, not just the things she said. "No worries mate," he started to repeat, in a broken Australian accent.

Tonks cut him off again, this time with a wand in his side. "Bam. You're dead again."

Hesitantly she continued, sounding as if she didn't want to push to hard or say to much. "Come on Harry, this is just the simple stuff, imitating voices. You're doing the gestures alright, but you need to be able to reproduce a likeness exactly, tiny flaws give it character, but they have to be regional flaws, things that differ from people in the region."

Dropping her wand from his side, she sighed. "That's enough for today, lets go out and do something fun tonight."

Though the Auror training was exciting to him, the city was even more exciting. "The beach!" he exclaimed.

Since the first day he'd been able to walk around that was where he'd wanted to go. Tonks was reluctant, and she wasn't sure why. The beach was fun, she remembered it from her youth. She also remembered a lot of other things that happened there, other than swimming.

Not even waiting for a yes or no Harry charged into the second room, where he was staying. Tonks raised an eyebrow when, seconds later, he came back out, towel over on arm and already in swimming trunks.

"Harry?" she asked, a little curious. "You do know that was a bit fast to change your clothing."

"erm." Harry stumbled, not sure what to say.

Harry tried to think of something, running his hands through his hair. It looked odd, his hair refused to stay blonde. It was quickly changing to black again almost a third black since they'd performed the color spell yesterday, it wasn't solid either, just rather dispersed through his whole head of hair.

"You said it was alright to do magic here, so long as it wasn't with my wand. So, the transfiguration charm you taught me, I've been working on it. I pretty much have it down now," he finished quietly. He wasn't about to tell her he'd been working on it solidly for the past week, he wanted her to feel good about teaching him.

Curious as to why Harry had been hiding his ability Tonks started to ask something, but stopped. She was surprised that he could do it already, and so well. She had been teaching several things to him since they'd come to the island. Part of the reason that they she'd brought him here was very reason. So much magic was used on the island that there was no way to monitor who was using magic unless it was targeted to a specific wand, and _they_ had spare wands.

Of the dozens of spells she'd gone over with him already, she could only think of a handful that she expected him to remember right away. Most of the stuff she'd only overviewed once to a very attentive Harry. It was more of a review, to get his mind open to them when she taught him later. "How many other things do you know?" She asked, wondering if he was working on other things.

"Nothing really. I was trying to focus on one thing at a time. I don't have all that much time to work on them between working with you and going out and doing things." He said, not really wanting to tell her he'd put off sleep to learn to do it.

Tonks shook off her amazement and went to get dressed, returning in a long shirt that covered her swimsuit completely, she didn't seem to want Harry to see it.

The trip to the beach didn't take long. Just outside their hotel (because it was a Merlin-level hotel) there was a set of booths which could transport you most places on the island. They simply walked into it and walked back out onto the beach.

Stepping out of the cell all Harry could do was gawk. The beach went for what seemed like forever both ways and was filled with people. As Tonks appeared behind him a group of girls walked by and Harry's jaw dropped. His eyes followed them as they passed, and continued to follow them until Tonks whacked him in the back of the head. "They're not your type," she said nonchalantly, then continued to walk past him. Harry continued to gawk at several of the females walking around, they were wearing swimsuits that were so small there was little left to imagine.

Tonks slowly disappeared in the mob of people, still wearing the long shirt she'd put on before leaving the rooms. Loosing sight of her, Harry hurried to catch up, not wanting to loose his guide.

They found an empty spot after a very long trek down the beach and Tonks set up an umbrella while Harry put his towel down just ahead of her and then immediately headed for the water. He'd never been in the ocean before.

Before entering he turned back to Tonks, who'd followed him down and he choked.

"Er...Tonks," Harry asked. "Where did you get that bathing suit?" Harry stared as she passed, feeling slightly uncomfortable at the semi-modest one piece Tonks had on.

She turned around with a quizzical look on her face. "What's wrong with it? Its not that skimpy, and I don't exactly have anything to be ashamed of you know." Harry nodded quickly. "Oh I know that I know. But... erm. have you ever worn it before?"

Again Tonks looked slightly puzzled. "No, its brand new. Why?"

"Well," Harry stammered, not knowing exactly how to put this. It wasn't a subject that was easy to approach delicate like. "Erm...do you know what happens to a white bathing suit when it gets wet?"

Tonks stood a moment before she burst out laughing. "Harry, don't be silly. Why on earth would they make a bathing suit that goes transparent when you go swimming?" She laughed some more as his ears turned red, making him feel slightly foolish for ever bringing it up. "You're so funny. Don't worry."

Harry didn't really. They played around for a long time, splashing and running through the waves. He didn't even pay attention to the other people and what they were doing and neither did Tonks. She was having fun, and was with Harry.

When they'd worn themselves out Harry returned to his towel, Tonks close behind. They both laid down to dry off, but Harry ended up staring at a pair of girls who'd ended up sitting nearby. They were near his age, and he couldn't seem to keep his eyes off them.

Of course, Tonks was not oblivious to this fact, but she ignored it and laid back, watching them from the corner of her eye as she bathed in the heat of the sun.

The two girls who were sitting nearby stopped laughing between themselves when one caught sight of Harry's obtrusive staring. One of them whispered into the others ear and they both laughed again. Finally the smaller brunette one nodded and they both stood. Tonks caught her breath when they headed for Harry.

When Harry saw them, he looked to Tonks expectantly. He didn't know what to say and she wanted to help him, but felt torn for some unknown reason. All she could do was smile and nod towards the girls.

At a loss as to what he was going to do, Harry took a deep breath. He tried to remember what Tonks had said about making friends in one of her 'lessons' and he tried to remember to keep calm as they towered over him.

"Hey," the taller, blonde girl said, smiling. "I'm Riana and this is Korina," she continued, pointing to her equally beautiful brunette companion.

Tonks looked them over from behind the umbrella that was shading her. The blonde one, Riana, had to be about eighteen. She was very attractive and she knew it; she flaunted it. Her swimsuit was small and tight, the way she swung her body was extremely provocative. Korina, the one who seemed to be her silent companion, looked far more natural. She carried herself well, and though her face didn't look quite so old she was just as curved as Riana. She wasn't wearing a string bikini like Riana, rather a much less revealing two piece suit. Tonks even made some notes in her mind, the girl seemed to have the personality that Tonks could assume effortlessly if she needed a new identity. Calming herself Tonks picked up her wand and waived it discretely, whispering a spell. Harry stared at the two girls as the flirting feeling in his stomach faded away. He felt a strange sense of comfort fill him and he smiled finally, finding words. "Harry, my name is Harry. It's a pleasure to meet you." He smiled again, offering them a seat with a sweep of his hand. He was extremely surprised at his own confidence, he wasn't quite himself. "So what are you doing here, and alone?"

"Oh, well. Korina and I are visiting for the summer. My aunt lives here and I had a friend to visit. Korina had never been here so I brought her along. She seems to like it here." Riana said and Korina just smiled.

The girls finally felt comfortable enough to sit after a few seconds, Korina sat a little further from Harry, but Riana sat uncomfortably close. "Where is it that you're from?" Harry asked, looking into Riana's eyes, there wasn't much way to not look at them without obviously avoiding them.

"NorCal," Riana smiled as she said it.

Having never heard of such a place Harry shook his head, but didn't ask where it was because he didn't want to seem foolish. He'd have to ask Tonks later, she'd know.

After almost an hour of talking Tonks started to get up and Harry's attention turned towards her. She was not wearing her over-shirt anymore. "I'm headed back Harry. We'll see you when you get in, alright?"

With a wink, Tonks turned and headed away. Korina's eyes followed Tonks carefully, but Riana barely even glanced up until Tonks had passed. Harry spent a minute lost as his eyes followed Tonks. Her swimsuit hadn't turned transparent as he'd thought, but it looked as if it'd shrunk slightly tightening against her well formed body. As Harry's head turned Riana's attention turned to the new threat. She looked up, following Tonks' path again.

The person who was most confused, Tonks, clenched her fist together as she walked away. She didn't know why she was leaving, but something didn't feel right inside. It was likely the interaction that seemed to happen so easily between Harry and the girls. Whatever it was Tonks was not feeling happy about it. She felt impulsive and turned to see if Harry was watching her leave. He was and feeling even more spontaneous, Tonks waved and blew Harry a kiss.

On the other end of the kiss Harry blushed brightly, extremely confused at her behavior. "Who is she?" Korina asked softly.

Harry suddenly recalled that he had never introduced them to her and felt bad about it. She wasn't sitting right next to him, but she had been close enough that she'd probably hear them talking the entire time and he'd ignored her almost completely.

"Yeah, she seems to know you pretty well." Riana said, looking extremely annoyed.

"My mate," Harry said, trying to make himself feel better. She was quickly becoming one of them as it was anyway, and that's what she wanted to be, she'd even said it. "She brought me here for a few weeks to get away from everything." Which was of course the truth. He still remembered why it was they were here. Tonks wasn't about to trust anyone after what had happened at the headquarters. Someone had given away their location and Tonks wanted to keep Harry safe. At least that's what she had said.

"She's a bit old for you, isn't she?" Korina asked again just curious. She didn't seem to demand the information and it didn't seem all that extreme for her, it was just a question.

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Not really. We've been friends for over a year now and she's not all that much older than me. She's only twenty eight or so. Besides, she understands me better than most people do," he recalled seeing her scar and that she'd been the one that really did seem to understand him. "She's teaching me too," he added, grinning.

Korina just nodded quietly, but Riana looked interested. "So now that you've lost the leash, let's say we have some fun."

Not quite sure what she meant by a 'leash' Harry just nodded. He didn't want to seem too much like an outsider, and Tonks had told him to try and go with the flow without standing out too much. He was trying to do that as best as possible. He really wanted to be an Auror. "Alright, where are we going then?"

Riana grinned. "Our place first. But after that it's a surprise. You'll just have to tag along and find out."

Harry just shrugged. If that was what she wanted, it was all right with him. He was having fun, and thought he was disappointed that Tonks had decided to leave and felt even odder about the manner she'd done it, he was feeling alright.

The trip to their place didn't take long. Riana was the one that was silent this time, while Korina asked questions.

"So you're from England then?" Korina asked not long after they'd wrapped up their stuff and gotten off the beach.

Harry nodded.

"Which school do you go to?" she asked, looking more like Hermione and trying to figure it out. Harry suspected she already had guessed which one he was going to.

The question did catch Harry's attention though. Tonks had warned him about getting caught in a lie, and told him that the best thing was to do was to do was to use as much truth as possible. She told him not to reveal his true identity, but it was obvious enough where he came from. He wasn't so sure he should tell her where he went to school, but he was afraid that she already knew so he chanced it.

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Really?" she acted surprised. "You don't happen to know Harry Potter? I hear he goes there."

"Yeah," Harry said. "I know him," he said, recalling that his name was popular throughout the whole wizarding world, and not just the school. He didn't enjoy it at all, he wanted to just disappear and be normal. "Who doesn't?" He added morosely.

Korina looked at him, and grabbed his hand as it swung. "You sound jealous." she said, staring right in his eyes. She seemed startled, but covered it up quickly. "Don't be you're a good guy too. Besides, most of the stuff he did as a kid, who else gets famous doing stuff like that? I even hear he's pretty conceded about it."

"He's not," Harry jumped in, defending himself weakly. "Sometimes I think he wishes he wasn't Harry Potter at all, that he could just be like everyone else."

"And now you're sorry for him. At least you don't have him for it."

"Let's talk about something else." Harry paused briefly, searching for another topic. "What about you," he finally said," what school do you go to?"

"NCMI" It's in the hills of NorCal, and isn't all that big. We've only got under 2000 people."

"NorCal?" Harry asked stupidly, he thought they were from the states and didn't remember ever hearing a state called NorCal.

"Oh sorry. Northern California, most people that live in California break it into north and south, it's such a big state. NCMI is Northern California Magical Institute. I'm training to be a muggle relations specialist. Riana hasn't made a choice about what she wants to do though."

Nodding his head with understanding, Harry thought about it. "So you're going to a college then?" he asked, he'd heard of muggle colleges of course, but he didn't know that they had magical colleges. He'd never heard about anything after Hogwarts. Besides, Korina had just turned 17, so it didn't seem like she'd be going to college, she should still be in her seventh year of schooling.

"Well yeah," she explained. "Once we're legal we can do anything. But most people tend to go to an institute for the first two years until they're eighteen. Some training there takes a lot longer though. Especially if you're trying for the medical field. It always brings in good money though I was never really worried about that. I just want to have fun in my job.

Harry nodded with interest. Things were very different there, especially if they became legal at 16. He sort of wished he lived in the states so that he could be legal, it'd make things so much easier for him. "Do they have Aurors there?" he asked, curious to know if it was really all that much different.

Korina looked confused, but Riana leaned over and whispered something in her ear. That sounded like Poe Poe.

"Oh," Korina's eyes lit up with understanding. "Foxx's. You call them something else. But where would you go that didn't have some sort of magical law enforcement?"

"Turned out just fine here." Riana muttered.

Korina laughed and poked Harry, squeezing his hand.

"Don't worry about her, she's doesn't like Foxx's much," she whispered in his ear. "Her father was not the smartest wizard and got into some trouble a while back. He's still imprisoned because of it," she added. Harry wasn't listening however. When Korina had gotten close to him and whispered in his ear he'd felt a shock run down his spine and now his whole body was tingling.

"Here we are," Riana announced.

Surprised that they had gotten to the house so quickly Harry looked up to find they'd entered a quiet neighborhood and he hadn't noticed at all. "Come on Korina, time to change," Riana said, dragging Korina away from Harry as soon as they'd entered the house.

"Harry. Wait in the living room."

Riana paused for a second and then walked down the hallway. "Darrian! Would you keep an eye on our new friend?"

Harry heard a muffled response and the girls disappeared into a back room. Where Riana had stood a few seconds before, a head dropped out of the ceiling. Harry jumped back, startled. A hand followed and gripped one of the bars that surrounded the opening it was coming out of. Then a whole body followed, it swung down from the ceiling like a monkey, making an extremely graceful landing.

"Names Darrian," he said, offering his hand for Harry to shake.

Still surprised at his entrance shook it wide-eyed. "Harry," he responded.

Darrian nodded and trotted off into another room. "What's your fancy?" he asked. "We've got just about every sort of juice and milk or water, got some dragon's fury too. It's mixed a little strong too, I don't recommend it unless you're used to it."

"Water's fine," Harry said, not really wanting to try anything else.

Darrian appeared around the corner again, glasses in hand and a bright smile on his face. "You know Harry, you can take a seat if you'd like. You're gonna be here for a bit, so don't fret about things.

Taking his advice Harry dropped into one of the fluffy seats sipping at his water. "So you're from the island?" he stammered, the confidence he'd had earlier seemed to be completely lost.

"Nah, but I've lived here for about half my life."

Harry smiled finally, Darrian seemed completely at ease around him and there wasn't anything that was going to bother him about just being friends. "You watch the broom races then?" he asked, slightly more at ease.

"Yeah. Always watched them. Simmons is supposed to win tomorrow at the finals, even though he was bottom rank at the start of the year. I just wish he could afford a Firebolt. All he's got is a lousy Nimbus 2004. They don't have near the acceleration in mid flight or top speed. He should have been saving all his winnings and he could have afforded one so he'd win without a problem at all."

"Are Firebolts expensive?" Harry asked stupidly, Sirius had bought his.

Darrian cocked his eyebrow. "Yeah, since the upgrade kit came out you can't even find an original at all. They're charging triple the price, and that's if you're lucky. It's too bad they just don't sell them with the kit preinstalled."

"Upgrade kit?" Harry's eyes grew wide. He had never heard of any such thing, nor of the possibility of it.

"Yeah. They made the first Firebolts upgradeable so that it wouldn't be obsolete within a year. They wanted to be the top seller on the market, and they are, it's just too bad that they temporarily stopped making them because of the ash shortage in the Mediterranean, I think it's just a cover story. There's a lot of aftermarket stuff for them too. You can get custom handles, speed enhancing spells, custom replacement twigs, and that's not even everything."

"Wow," Harry muttered as he wondered how much it'd cost him to get some of the stuff.

"You're from England then? Sure sounded like it." Harry nodded. Darrian flashed another glimpse at his bright white teeth. "Don't see many from there. They don't seem to like change too much. I've been to a Quidditch game over there though, and if there's one thing that's really good about that place, it'd have to be that. They have a following like no other place in the world. Quidditch is the only real sport they play there."

"I play Quidditch," Harry volunteered. "Not much in the past two years, but that wasn't by choice."

"You any good?"

Harry nodded.

"What position you play?"

"Seeker." Harry recalled the thrill of chasing after the snitch and suddenly started feeling homesick again. He'd felt it before, but every time he'd felt it and told Tonks it had disappeared almost instantly.

Without another word Darrian jumped up, a smug smile on his face. "Wait a sec," he said as he ran down the hall. He jumped, catching one of the bars and tucking his legs into his stomach, using the momentum to swing himself through the hole in the ceiling.

Harry stared, unsure what to say. He'd never seen any body do things like that except on the telly. Above him, Harry could hear Darrian moving around.

Then he appeared again, coming through the hole feet first. He landed hard, but his knee's bent forward, taking most of the weight and his arms shot backward to hold his balance. Harry laughed at him as he looked up beaming.

"Before I found out I was a wizard I was a gymnast, can you tell?" he asked rhetorically. "Another year or two and I might've even made it as far as the Olympics." He said, still grinning.

The revelation was a surprise to Harry, but it seemed to make things all the more realistic. It still was odd that he was able to do stuff like that so easily. "How'd you end up here?" he asked. His parents were obviously muggles if he hadn't known he was a wizard.

"Foster parents disowned me. They thought magic was evil or something. So, when the first year of school ended no one came to pick me up. They didn't even bother to tell me, they just disappeared. I ended up in a foster home for the summer. With the help of some friends that I made at school, I was able to escape. I caught a ride and ended up here, been here ever since. I rent the place upstairs from Riana's mom, I don't even know if she considers it rent anymore, I'm pretty much part of the family."

Grinning he waved his hand with some sort of odd magical gesture and opened his hand to reveal a snitch. "It's from the Hanover game of '82, the one that happened on Halloween, it was dedicated to the Potters. Klavosky caught the snitch by falling from his broom so Schneider didn't know what he was doing. It's one of the sweetest moves ever."

Harry knew the match well, it was in every recent Quidditch book, including the one he owned. He couldn't believe that this boy had such an item, especially after he'd complained about the price of a Firebolt. This had to be much more expensive if it was real.

"How'd you get it?" He asked inquisitively.

"Won it off some poor slob. He wasn't the best gambler in the world, thought he could beat me on a broom. I'm not bad at all."

A queasy feeling entered Harry, he wondered who the man was and why he'd gone and done something like that. "Wow," he managed to choke out.

Darrian tossed the snitch to Harry. "Go ahead. Not many around here appreciate it; it's nice to have someone around who does."

Reflexes kicked in and Harry snagged the snitch out of mid-air, long before its wings were fully extended. "It's even signed!" he exclaimed as he examined it closer. Darrian nodded eagerly in the background.

From the back room Harry could hear giggling and he tossed the snitch back to Darrian. Darrian's hands darted out and caught the snitch quicker than Harry expected.

"You're pretty good at catching that," Harry commented.

Smiling, Darrian opened his hand again. The snitch feeling freedom opened its wings and started to move away. Darrian didn't even move until the last moment, waiting until the snitch was barely within reach to snag it out of mid air. Harry recalled seeing an almost identical scene he'd seen the previous year in Snape's memories.

"My dad used to do that." he said, remembering what else his father had done. Thinking of his father made him think about Sirius, which made him sad.

"Usually do it with a normal snitch, but I don't have it right now. Deacon won it off me in a bet yesterday so I have to go buy another one tomorrow."

"You have a Quidditch store here?" Harry asked surprised. Tonks hadn't known of one that was still running, they'd tried to go to one, but were unsuccessful in finding one. That was when he found out that Quidditch was not anywhere near as popular here as it was in other places. They had other sports.

"Down Madigs Lane, behind Penkey's Broom Supply. I could take you there tomorrow seeing as I'm already headed there."

"Sure!" Harry said excitedly. He was happy again, and wanted to check out the so called upgrade options for his Firebolt. He wasn't sure why Tonks had been constantly hounding him to be careful, he hadn't met anyone that wasn't nice to him yet.

They continued talking, about everything from Quidditch to the island. Harry found out a lot about the island. Most of the money came from tourism and trade, both of which the island was well suited for. The populating was a mingling of over a dozen different major cultures from around the world, and completely magical. Muggles only came on occasion, and only with someone magical, the only way to get to the island was through magic.

He also pointed out some of the major tourists traps, and some of the better places to visit. Tonks had known about nearly all of that stuff. She had failed to mention some places, specifically the clubs. Darrian talked about them a lot, and Harry suspected that Riana and Korina were going to be going to them with him.

The girls left the confines of their room soon afterwards.

"Gorgeous!" Darrian said when he saw them exit. "You're a real lucky guy Harry, getting to take both of these woman out."

Harry just nodded his head, dumbfounded. Then he remembered that he was wearing his swimming trunks still. "Do you have some place I could change?" Harry asked. He and Tonks had spent enough time shopping that he knew exactly what he wanted to wear, and he had enough to just transfigure the clothing.

Darrian nodded and pointed, "first door on the right."

"Harry, you know, Darrian's got some stuff I'm sure would fit you." Riana said before Harry closed the door. The three looked at the door Harry had walked into confused, he'd hadn't taken any clothing in there, why would he be changing.

Meanwhile Harry cleaned himself up as best as possible, then transfigured everything he had into a much nicer outfit. It took him a little time to get it to the point that he was satisfied with the state of his robes.

The two girls seemed surprised when Harry exited, but they didn't say anything. "Ready?" Harry asked, as confidently as possible. His mind was drifting with thoughts of the past and he was having a hard time ignoring them. Darrian had given him some tips about dancing, but it was hard enough to concentrate on the moment instead of what was going to happen.

"Not yet," Riana said. "Darrian's coming too. He seems to like you."

Darrian only took a few minutes to drop from his room in the ceiling. He did do it gently though. Harry didn't blame him, the clothing he was wearing now was much more restricting to extravagant moves like he'd been doing earlier.

"Here," Darrian slipped him a small object. "Eat it, it'll keep you good for the rest of the night." Harry took it and put the object into his mouth, unsure. It dissolved almost instantly and made him cough because of its strength, it seemed like some sort of potion in dry form.

The trip to the club they were going to was made on a trolley like vehicle that ran through the every fourth street in town. No one operated it, it simply rambled down the street slowly. It stopped when someone was near a pickup point, but it went slowly enough that you could catch it if you missed it, or grab it as it rolled by.

Club Craft was no more than a small doorway between Mindy's Market and The Gems Gallery. The only reason Harry had noticed it at all was because someone sporting short crimson hair entered it before Riana pointed it out.

Just inside a stoutly wizard with a grimacing look held a glass orb out for them to touch. Darrian didn't even bother, he just passed by the large man with a hand gesture and a smile.

Harry however was not so fortunate. He reached out and touched the orb with his hands and the orb glowed purple. The large man looked down at Harry and then glanced over to Darrian who made another gesture. For a second the two communicated with their eyes and then Harry was motioned to continue past.

"You're not sixteen?" Darrian asked as they waited for Korina and Riana.

"Not for another couple of weeks, at the end of July," Harry said quietly.

"He wasn't going to let you in, since you're not legal yet. Sorry about that, I'd have never thought you were fifteen. You don't look it, seventeen maybe, but not fifteen." Darrian studied Harry for a moment. "It's your eyes, they just. I don't know. They look like they've seen a lot of shit, you know? I don't know anyone that has eyes like that, not even adults."

Harry just nodded. No one had ever told him anything like that before and he wondered if it was because of the spell that changed his eyes color, maybe it changed them more than he'd thought. Even though Darrian had been right, Harry couldn't see how his eyes could be different because he had dealt with a 'lot of shit' as Darrian has so aptly put it.

Korina put her arm around Harry waste, which startled him more than a little. "What wrong Harry?" she asked sweetly, putting her head on his shoulder and making Harry shiver again.

"Nothing Kor, we were just talking about his eyes," Darrian said. He was smiling at Harry's reaction and trying to hold himself from laughing. ". and how unreserved girls from California are," He added.

Harry blushed, but Korina ignored the comment. "He does have pretty eyes doesn't he? They change too, don't they Harry?"

Not sure what she meant, Harry shrugged. He hoped that it didn't mean his eyes were already green, he'd performed the spell on them in the morning, it shouldn't have worn off already.

"Yeah?" Darrian asked.

Riana showed up and together they started walking down the hallway. "Yeah," Korina said, "they were brown this morning at the beach."

Flinching, Harry reached into his pocket and gripped his wand. "They're still brown."

Turning, Korina looked into his eyes. "They're. brown? I swear they were. oh, never mind."

Harry sighed, relieved they were still brown, but he wondered why she'd thought they had changed. He'd have to make sure to renew the spell daily. His mind numbed slightly as they walked out of the hall and into the room, the roar of the music causing it. His current problems seemed to drift to the back of his mind.

•


	6. Jack

Chapter 06

• Jack •

Rolling out of bed, Harry awoke quickly upon noticing Tonks staring down at him from the other side of the room.

He smiled at her, still feeling the effects of everything he'd done the night before.

Tonks was staring down at him, sitting in a chair, her arms tucked up to her chest. "Where were you last night?" she demanded sharply. "You didn't even get in until after 2 in the morning!" she continued angrily, not revealing that she had been awake at close to 4:30, when he'd actually stumbled through the door.

Harry yawned and stood up, he was quite tired since he'd only had a few hours of sleep he wasn't quite ready for someone to be at his bedside. Besides, he'd been having a really good dream, the first for a long time and Tonks wasn't going to make him feel bad. He looked over to her to her and sighed, making something up quickly. He didn't actually remember everything that had gone on, bits and pieces of it, but nothing solid.

"Korina and Riana took me to Club Craft. Time just sort of flew and it got late real quick. I had to take them back home too, so I was even later," Harry said. Then another scene flashed in front of him, he remembered Darrian offering for him to stay the night, but not what he'd said. "Darrian invited me to stay the night but I figured that it was too much. Besides, I didn't have anything else to wear. I could've transfigured my stuff again, but they still need to be washed."

Of course, there was one thing that he did remember and he definitely didn't want to include it. For some reason he had stayed and he'd woken up to a very naked Korina and without being quite sure how he'd gotten there. He wasn't sure what'd happened, but something had, and inside he felt utterly confused about it.

Tonks was sitting, quietly listening to Harry defend himself. She was well aware that Harry was wearing robes he'd been looking at a few days before. She didn't even care about that though. She'd been awake the whole night worrying and when he'd come back smelling like things Tonks didn't dare think about, she'd grown angry.

"Harry you're not sixteen. How'd you get in?"

Grinning, Harry looked up at Tonks directly. "Darrian, he's a friend of Riana's. He knows the guard, he just told him to let me past. He's so nice Tonks, not like all the people you've warned me about."

"You can't go there again," said Tonks firmly, trying to make it obvious that the conversation was over. "I know what goes on there and you're not to have any part of it. I think you should stay away from Darrian too, he doesn't sound like someone you need top be hanging around. He's only nice for now."

Finally, tired of Tonks heckling him, Harry started to get angry. He hadn't done anything bad, he'd had some fun and that was it. "Don't tell me what I can and can't do!" he growled. "I'm old enough to make at least some of my own decisions!" he finished, yelling.

"Then you'll have to learn to deal with the consequences like everyone else. Your training has been suspended until further notice!" Tonks announced, standing heavily and heading for the door. "You're going to have to wait until you're mature enough!" she yelled, yanking the door open.

"Fine!" Harry yelled back at her. "Get out of my room!"

"Fine!" Tonks yelled back once more, before slamming the door that connected their rooms.

Outside Tonks stopped, her back to the door. She felt horrible inside. The anger at Harry hadn't been something she'd wanted to get out of hand like this. She'd only meant to get after him, and somehow it had escalated into a full scale argument.

Inside the room Harry stared at the door, seething. Tonks was suddenly starting to act like every other adults he knew, which really bothered him. When she wasn't like this he loved to be around her, it was like being around Hermione or Ron. After all, he hadn't done anything wrong. Why couldn't she just let him make his own decision about it?

For the next hour, while Harry went about his morning tasks, the fight was the only thing he could think about. Meeting Darrian distracted him. The arranged meeting place was down near the beach, which really wasn't really a far walk from where Harry was staying and it helped him clear his head. It was quickly obvious to Darrian, who didn't mention it, that Harry was in a bad mood for some reason. The grim appearance, the forced smile, all leading to the eyes that seemed like they were on fire.

Inside the Quidditch shop things changed, the fight floated to the back of his mind and Harry engrossed himself everything the shop had to offer. It was very different from the shop that was in Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. He examined everything, spending lots of time looking over the Firebolt upgrade kit. It was pretty simple to use and Harry was sorely tempted to buy it, but he knew if he did he'd have to use Tonks' money, and he didn't want to spend her money even if he was angry at her.

Darrian changed his mindset just slightly, in the end talking him into buying a snitch to sharpen his skills. Harry decided it was probably for the best. He wasn't one to use it as his father and Darrian did, but he could let it loose in a room and practice there, alone. He wouldn't let anyone else see him, and if he did it without a broom he'd have to learn to react without the additional speed and movement which would help him out later on. He was good enough on a broom already, he just needed to be quick enough to beat the other players when he got into a hard situation.

As they left the store, Harry felt content as the snitch struggled in his pocket.

"You have anything else to do today?" Darrian asked, playing with his snitch already.

Harry shook his head. "Not anymore. Tonks and I had a fight, so everything that we had planned isn't going to happen," he said, feeling a ping of regret for yelling at her.

"Tonks, what an odd name." he said, thinking for a moment. "Yeah, well anyway, since you're not doing anything why don't you hang out with me? We could go watch the broom races, my treat."

The offer was very generous seeing that it was something Harry had been thinking about doing himself. In but a moment he had accepted happily. Tonks had passed by the stadium and Harry'd seen glimpses of the races, no doubt there to catch visitors attention. Harry had certainly been interested.

"Sure," he finally said, trying to avoid thinking about Tonks.

Darrian just nodded and set off at a quick pace, leading Harry through the back alley's of the town. It took quite a while, but as he walked several people joined him, forming a group that trailed along. He paid them no mind, and so Harry didn't mention anything.

Finally, as they neared the stadium, Darrian turned around. "So, I see that everyone's ready to see the races," he said, smiling. "I do hope everyone has brought gifts for me!"

The group of boys laughed with Darrian, who opened a door marked 'Staff Only' and ushered everyone in. Harry faltered at the entrance but Darrian reassured him. "It's alright," he said. "Nick always lets us in when there's someone at the door, he knows we'd sneak in anyway, and besides, he owes me a favor or two."

Having only known Darrian for a day Harry just shrugged his shoulders. Last night he'd done something he probably shouldn't be able to do, this wasn't much different. Besides, if Darrian was telling him the truth then it didn't matter. So Harry just followed the others through the winding hallways. All the boys seemed to have been there before, and Harry felt more like a tag along than anything else.

Finally at a brown door Darrian stopped, pushing in gently on a brick next to it. "That's the spot," he said quietly. The door creaked open, and Harry turned around still not feeling quite right about sneaking into the facility. After marching up a set of stairs a airy-room appeared. Across the far side was a solid window, with something flashing across it.

The roar of the crowd brought everyone, including Harry, to the window. "Damn!" Darrian said angrily. "They started earlier than usual, the tournament must've pushed the normal races to earlier today."

A list of names raced across the window and Darrian looked up at them and sighed. "First races just ended and." he paused, apparently waiting for a something. "WHAT! Kirby won!" he threw his hands into the air. "He didn't even pull 15's in the last rally!" he said, aghast.

"Look at him," one of the other boys said, his face plastered to the window. "He's got a Firebolt."

Darrian's head jumped forward against the window so fast that Harry thought perhaps he might break it. From beyond the line of drooling boys, Harry could see who they were talking about. "He hasn't had it long," he thought aloud, remembering his first experiences with a Firebolt. "He's holding it too high, you don't get the best response if you hold it like most brooms. He should've figured it out if he'd ridden it much. It was designed for Quidditch, not just for flying."

Looking up Harry found that the eyes of the boys were no longer below, but turned to him. All of them stared at him speechless, making Harry feel extremely uncomfortable.

"He's a visitor guys, name's Harry."

"Black." Harry quickly added.

"And he's right," Darrian added dominantly. "He's got a real broom now, and he needs to learn to ride it."

Ignoring the other boys, Harry turned and watched the racers lineup again. They had various brooms, some old, some new, and with his experience as a Quidditch player he could see which ones were more familiar with flying. Though it was hard to see their skills, he could see who knew what they were doing.

Near the end of the lineup, a rider made a familiar motion with his hands as he spoke with the female rider next to him. Harry's eyes stopped following the lineup, staring at the rider. The platinum hair seemed even more familiar and he gasped. The rider next to him said something rude and the platinum haired rider turned, throwing his leg over his broom. When Harry saw the face, he knew immediately who the rider was.

The way he mounted the broom made Harry look closer. Malfoy'd played the trick before, making it seem as if he weren't as fast as he was and Harry suspected that he'd lost the first race purposefully. His Nimbus was more than enough to take on a rider of a Firebolt if the rider didn't know what he was doing.

"He's going to win," Harry said to himself, seeing the smirk on Malfoy's face. The previous year he'd been better by leaps and bounds, and Harry had wanted to race him playing more and more with every game he saw, partly because the part Draco played in the last years Quidditch games.

"Want to bet on it?" Darrian asked, grinning from ear to ear, his eyes flirting between Harry and Malfoy.

Completely taken back Harry shook his head, he didn't have much money after having purchased the snitch. "I really don't have much." he said, trying to put Darrian off lightly.

"Oh, come on," Darrian urged. "You've got a snitch. Besides, you only loose if the player I bet on wins, otherwise no one wins or looses. And," he added suggestively. "It's the way things are done around here, you bet on anything and everything. I once bet my life, literally, that I could. well never mind, it's not something I like to relive."

Feeling a bit forced Harry started to say no, but around him he could hear the other boys betting between each other. Looking down at Draco, with his confident smirk he sighed. "Alright," he said quietly. If Draco didn't win he'd be even more angry at him than usual, even if he had no knowledge of what he'd done. "Who are you betting on?" he asked, figuring that Darrian would bet on the Firebolt.

"Meyers," he pointed to a wizard, "the one in the purple robes."

Meyers it seemed was a new contestant in the race, he was walking out of the side doors as Darrian had placed the bet. He hadn't even made it onto his broom yet. He was also carrying a Nimbus 2002, very much life Draco's. He was however older and heavier. Harry had no doubt the man knew how to handle his broom, but Draco was better, he was sure of it.

Draco seemed to still try and feign newness, playing his part masterfully. He gripped his broom all wrong, but well enough that he could change positions the instant he had to. The racers finally all leaned forward on their brooms, a signal that they were most ready Harry assumed, and a loud pop rang through the whole stadium.

The races started so instantly that Harry found himself staring at an empty starting lineup. His eyes caught the few stragglers almost immediately, but the racers were already moving so fast that it took him a moment longer to catch them with his eyes. Harry had never watched a true race before, but he could most certainly point out the more experienced riders from above.

Slowly the race began to form a line of racers, each turn them made straightening the line more and more. Harry watched, eager to learn everything he could. If Draco could be in a race, surely he could do the same.

Every racer, save four, took the turns far too wide and it didn't seem have much control. It didn't surprise Harry at all when several of them lost their stability and went wildly out of control, careening out of control into the cheering crowds. Several slowed, only to find that by the time they'd pushed for more speed in the straightaway they had no chance to catch the more aggressive riders.

When a rider was passed by the lead racer, it seemed they were no longer a part of the race. If they did not leave themselves a mediator jumped into the race from the side, pulling the racer from the track. Harry thought it was rather harsh, but by the third lap the total racers had been cut to a fourth of what it had been, only 10 people.

Kirby was ahead, still showing signs of his lack of proficiency with the Firebolt. Meyers was close behind, tailed by Malfoy and the woman he'd been speaking to before the race had started. As far as he could tell Malfoy was allowing himself the third position, every time the woman would speed up he'd push himself a little faster to stay just ahead of her.

"How many laps?" Harry asked excitedly as Draco finally dropped his body closer to the broom and tucked his legs in behind him.

"Four." Darrian replied, his mouth agape as Draco took second place. The woman had pulled neck and neck with Meyers who'd pushed more out of his broom, but could go no faster.

Across the room Harry could hear whispers. "That kids pretty good," one boy commented.

Next to him another shoved him playfully. "But Seonaidh's better, she _really_ knows how to handle a broom," he said poking his companion. "If you know what I mean."

"Stupid, we're watching races, I don't care right now."

Harry glanced back down to the races and tried to figure out what they'd meant by the comment. She certainly was handling her broom well, he couldn't even figure what she had, he'd never seen one like it before, it seemed ancient though.

Next to him Darrian had regained his composure and was sitting down in the seats, something Harry had completely forgotten about, watching the race. "He is pretty damn good," he commented, taking the loss without question even though there were still two laps left.

Around the bends the brooms flew, Harry had trouble watching them because they were moving so fast. He felt the rush of the wind as if he were flying next to him and he focused. He didn't really care if Draco won or not, he just didn't want Meyers to win.

Somehow Draco increased his speed again as they neared the start of the last lap and on a straightaway he pulled just ahead of Kirby, but made even more headway in the turn. The woman had, astonishingly enough, been able to keep up with Draco.

The race took another sharp turn and the whole lap changed, there was a single straightaway left with at least a dozen tight curves after it, eventually leading to the finish line. Harry started, surprised at what had happened. Malfoy seemed to be surprised as well.

From behind Harry could almost feel the grin bearing down on the back of his skull, Darrian seeing his chance of not losing. Harry didn't dare turn around. At that instant Seonaidh kicked it up another notch, which seemed impossible with the speed they were going and moved in on Draco.

Somehow, while still in the straightaway, Draco felt her moving in on him and was able to push himself harder, keeping a half the length of a broomstick between them. The straightaway was easy, but as they hit the first turn somehow Seonaidh seemed to be able to pull herself through them tighter, catching up on Draco after two turns.

Draco glanced back, and then veered sharply into the turn, cutting off Seonaidh's avenue. After four more turns Seonaidh back of a little, waiting for her chance to get past him. An obstacle appeared and Draco avoided it, but the wind he was putting off sucked it right into Seonaidh's path. She had a hard time dodging it and lost some distance on Draco as she pulled her broom up and over the obstacle.

The tension filled the whole room as the last two turns came into sight. Harry watched, breathless as Seonaidh followed Draco into the second-to-last turn, veering too far to make it. She got so close to the wall that Harry thought perhaps she'd struck it. He was wrong however, she twisted the broom sharply so that she was parallel to the ground, and she kicked of the wall with all her strength.

The whole stadium was so quiet that a pin drop could have been heard. Harry had never heard of such a move, it was insane at that speeds and she should have been shot from her broom just by the force that the wall would have exerted against her legs. Miraculously rather than slowing it sped her up and by the second turn she was sitting on Draco's ass again.

As she turned Draco seemed to have swerved too far, and Seonaidh took the advantage, pulling in on him. It was a ruse though. As Seonaidh pulled in tighter he veered into her again, this time not so hard. Something strange happened as he did, Harry could scarcely believe it was possible but Draco had another burst of speed and pulled out ahead of Seonaidh again.

"No." a boy next to Harry breathed. "That's. the. the."

"Darwin Draft." Darrian said behind him. "I was hoping Seona might pull it off, but she certainly wasn't prepared for the kid to do it."

"But. but." the kid stuttered.

"James it's alright," Darrian smiled. "He did it, he won fair and square."

Darrian caught Harry's questioning look and picked the snitch from his pocket, throwing it at Harry who caught it without thinking. "You're boy's good. He pulled Seona into a ploy and as she got close enough, he pulled himself into the wind she displaced, using his own to boost his speed slightly. It's not a safe move, in fact it's not a _sane _move, it usually gets people seriously injured, but he pulled it off without a hitch."

The roar of the crowd barely even registered in Harry's mind. He'd never once heard of such a move, not in any of the Quidditch books he'd read. His real problem was that Draco had done it, he almost hated himself for betting on Draco, feeling that perhaps Draco wouldn't have won if he hadn't.

Below Draco was standing on the podium, a smirk that rivaled none Harry had ever seen from him. He turned slightly, saying something to Seonaidh, only to be rejected again.

"Who's that girl?" someone asked.

Of course, the first person that everyone turned to was Darrian, who was sitting in his seat, composed with a smile on his face. For a brief instant, Harry was reminded of Snape. The moment passed and Harry shook away the odd feeling, watching as the other boys waited for an answer.

"She used to race here a few years back. She could pull off nearly every trick in the book, but it looks as if she's rusty, I didn't see her do anything tricky this time. I heard she was the best, that no one could defeat her if she was really racing. Look at the broom she's using. It's a Comet 907. You can't even buy spare parts for it at a used store anymore."

The broom was antiquated, Harry had already seen that, but he couldn't believe she was riding a 907, they were even a great deal older than the brooms at the school. Everyone around him nodded.

"James?" Darrian said. The boy who stood next to Harry dropped his head and pulled something out of his pocket. He tossed Darrian the object and Darrian caught it in midair, before the snitch disappeared into the air.

Amazed Harry looked at Darrian, who was grinning at him. "Gotta know hot to play the odds, but you gotta know how to win too," he laughed.

The crowd roared and Harry's eyes turned to the track again.

Every player except those who'd come in top four left the track, brooms in hand. While, meanwhile, on the other side of the field a dozen more players joined, all marching out in order. Harry wondered why they didn't come out on their brooms, but didn't bother to ask.

"Rally time," Darrian said behind him. "Your friends up for the first race, wanna give him another shot?"

With the snitch tucked slightly in his hand, Harry shook his head. "He's _not_ my friend," he said quietly. ". and I'm not betting on him winning again. He's up against real racers now."

"Yeah, true," Darrian said, absent mindedly, he was making a motion to one of the other boys. "He doesn't have a chance now."

Behind him, the boys made bets while Harry watched intrigued. One of the players, riding a Nimbus 2004, approached Seonaidh. He said something that seemed to annoy Malfoy and Harry smiled. Apparently, the two racers knew each other.

After a short conversation the man, who Harry assumed was Simmons because of Darrian had said that he was riding a Nimbus 2004, motioned to the sidelines. An attendant came running out and after a few words disappeared back into the stadium. Seonaidh jumped on him, hugging him tightly when the attendant returned holding a much newer broom.

"Hey," Harry started, but was interrupted by another boy.

"Look at Simmons! He's givin' the new girl a better broom."

James laughed. "He wants some competition!"

It seemed as if everyone looked to Darrian again to see what he would say. "Nah," Darrian responded. "He owes her, the last race she was in she gave her broom to him when she got disqualified for cheating. She'd won the race, but when the judges reviewed the tape they saw that somehow she'd managed to take a turn at an impossible angle. They called it cheating even though they could never prove she'd done something wrong. After that she gave up her broom to Simmons and no one ever saw her race again."

Harry thought it was quite informative. It was odd how Darrian seemed to know so much about everything.

A whistle created an uproar in the crowd and the racers lined up, \brooms tucked tightly between their legs. The track had returned to its normal state, a simple oval shape with a few obstacles. Harry wondered why it was so simple for the riders which where out there. These riders were a far cry from the muddled group who'd raced in the last race.

"Gibbons has made an announcement everyone!" a commenter said somewhere in the distance. "She says . that she'll be throwing in a bonus. the person who wins this race will receive a. kiss?"

The crowd roared again and Harry looked down to see who it was that was shouting. A woman, another woman, it seemed was doing the shouting. "And what's this? She's telling Seonaidh she'd better win! What a statement. I can't believe what I'm hearing!"

Snorting behind him the boys could barely keep in their cheers. Harry looked down at the woman and shook his head, it was gross to even think of such a thing. It was like him kissing Ron.

"You suppose Seonaidh will let that slow her down?" one of the boys asked.

Another boy smiled unpleasantly. "I hope not. I want to see what Gibbons does to Seonaidh, it won't just be a kiss I think," he said, laughing obnoxiously.

"I don't even want to see it anymore," Darrian said looking away. "Tell me who wins. Harry, I won't be gone for long, let me know if anything interesting happens."

He disappeared back out the door, leaving Harry with a group of kids that he didn't know at all. The race was about to begin and Harry really wanted to see what real racers had behind them. He knew how Draco raced, he'd been up against him enough times to be able to compare himself and so, with that he could compare himself to the rest of the racers.

A loud whistle started the race.

It wasn't the same start off that it had been before. The racers, knowing their opponents were as good as they were pushed themselves to the limit to start with, trying to take the lead. Draco was left near the center of the group, a far cry from the position he'd taken before. The leaders, once again a group of four, distanced themselves from the pack within only a few seconds. Seonaidh was among them.

Harry watched her with interest. It seemed the more she was racing the faster she was becoming. He wasn't quite sure why it was so, but upon seeing her race he doubted she was rusty. She was pulling herself so well that Harry doubted she'd ever quite flying. The broom stick, what looked like a Nimbus 2001, was a much better broom than what she'd been riding.

As they rounded the finish line for the first lap the track changed in front of them. Harry stared in awe as the riders made the necessary adjustments without more than a second to spare, avoiding the now protruding obstacles that had appeared throughout the track.

The track itself had changed its course, winding around in an S shape, and then looping around itself. On edge Harry felt his legs weakening, he wanted so bad to race, to test himself against real racers. Draco wasn't doing well at all, he couldn't handle the full sized people who were crowding him, all pushing to catch up to the leaders.

As the road twisted the leader, who happened to be Simmons, lost the lead against Seonaidh who pulled a turn so tight that Harry gasped. At that speed he wasn't sure anyone could have pulled off a turn so forcefully. It was no wonder she'd been disqualified for cheating if she could do something like that.

After the turn a burst of speed gave her almost a full yard between herself and Simmons. With what seemed almost. a swagger she turned to Gibbons, blowing him a kiss. Harry laughed at the boastfulness she was showing. It didn't stop there, with each turn she took it tighter and faster, increasing her speed until even Simmons was almost a full lap behind. Harry was extremely appreciative of her ability, he'd never seen anyone ride a broom like that in his whole life. Not even professional Quidditch players could do something like that.

Two more laps, each with continually changing difficulties. The laps seemed to extend more and more each lap, not just because the track was more winding. With each successful lap the whole inner stadium seemed to be enlarging. Harry wasn't sure if it was true, it was hard to tell while he was watching the action. Things were changing, and quickly. But Seonaidh wasn't loosing ground, she just continued to move in on the slower players, lapping them one by one.

When she came to Draco she pulled her broom in close, yelling something in his ear. In an instant he kicked out towards her menacingly. Harry's breath stopped as his feet collided with the tail of her broom. For an instant though, it was if time had stopped while her broom started to shift in the air. It veered towards Draco at first, cutting off his flight path and forcing him to change course to avoid striking the woman.

The rest of the group scattered in every direction, some stopping, some shooting into the stadiums. The crowds never had time to avoid them, and the screams of injured people and calls for help could be heard faintly. Harry couldn't be sure where Draco ended up, his concern was the woman who Draco had tailed.

Pulling against her broom, fighting the inevitable, Seonaidh yanked too hard and overcompensated, swinging the broom so hard that it twirled in the air sending her shooting towards a large brick wall. With nowhere else to go and no time to slow down Harry saw her do the most amazing thing. She pulled herself into the broom, pushing it at an even greater speed towards the wall. In the last moment she swung herself forward, completely flipping the broom over and stopping herself so fast that Harry wasn't sure if it where possible.

The whole crowd roared as the broom turned itself right side up again and Seonaidh waved to the crowd, then turned back toward the course. Her speed lost, the rest of the front group caught up to her quickly. There was something about the move that concerned Harry, something more than just familiar about it. As Seonaidh lost her first place spot he tried to remember if he'd ever seen it before, but he couldn't recall.

Seonaidh refused to give up though and never lost second place. Harry knew who he was rooting for, she'd just showed more resolve than he thought he could ever have. After a near death experience she was moving again and trying to bring herself into the front.

Simmons wasn't going to let her take his place this time though and as she cut in on one of the corners he recklessly followed, keeping her from passing him up. Twice it happened and twice Seonaidh was shut out from making the move into first place. She dropping back near the end of the final lap, following Simmons closely, but not pushing for the lead. Harry thought there was something she was planning and watched carefully. Behind him the boys were completely silent, and Harry welcomed it. Their jeers and shouts were certainly not something Harry liked to listen to.

As the final straightaway was almost in sight Seonaidh did the most ridiculus thing Harry had ever seen, she slowed again. The turn was sharp and she took it loosely. Another rider, someone Harry didn't know, pulled in between her and Harry could see what she was doing, but he doubted it would work.

In the last instant Seonaidh pulled into the rider, barely in front of him and slightly lower, almost skimming the ground herself. Her speed jumped shockingly and she shot out of the turn like a bullet, tucked so tightly into her broom that it was hard to tell she was a separate entity. The rider who she'd bummed the speed off list control and shot off into the air not able to take the bounce that the air had pushed against him. The last few feet of the race was so tight that Harry clenched his fist around the snitch so tightly that it felt as if it had popped in his hand.

Finally, the race was over but not with a clear winner. The two had passed the line so close together that it left the crowd wondering who'd won. Harry waited breathless for the names to flash across the window in front of him. The announcers voice was speaking in the back of his mind and he turned his concentration to it, still keeping his eyes glued to the window.

"It's. the judges are reviewing the call between themselves right now. Of course the winner will be the one with the. no, here it is, the winner of the 289th semi-annual Roslin Rally is." he paused for a moment to add to the effect only to receive boo's from the crowd, "Seonaidh!"

At the same instant Harry recalled the move. He invented it. As far as he knew he was the only person that had ever used it. He'd looked all over, through every Quidditch book in the library, some in the bookstore at Hogsmeade, and had never found any mention of a similar move. The only time he'd ever even used it was when he was with Tonks.

James yelled something and Harry looked down at the group who'd won. Darrian was walking out, the first price trophy in his hand. "No! he wouldn't."

Sure enough Darrian strode right up to Seonaidh and handed her the trophy as if he were the one that was suppose to be doing it. "HE DID!" James shouted. "I'm going to strangle him!" he continued, quieting down.

From above Harry could see Darrian was grinning ear to ear and Harry wasn't at all surprised when he said something to Seonaidh above the cries of the spectators and the announcer. The whole group gasped as Seonaidh leaned over him and whispered something in his ear, turning his grin into a look of surprise.

Several minutes later when Darrian appeared at the door, a smug grin on his face, Harry couldn't help but try and rile him up. "She didn't accept your proposal, did she?"

Around him the boys laughed lightly at Harry's joke, but quieted when Darrian looked around. "Nah. She said her heart was already dedicated to someone more famous than you or I, Harry Potter."

Harry blushed. He'd never even seen the woman before and she had told Darrian that she loved him. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, seems like all the good ones are waiting for him to profess his love to them. Kor used to be head over heals for him. Seems like she's gotten over it after she met you."

Remembering that he'd woken to her earlier in the morning Harry blushed even deeper. How much did Darrian know about that?

"Kor? The ice queen?" James asked from beside him.

"Oh! Didn't I tell you, our little man here broke the ice queen in a single night."

James choked.

The whole room seemed to be staring at Harry and he wanted to shrink away from their look. He didn't even remember it! It was personal too, he didn't want anyone to know what had gone on anyway.

"Oh yeah," Darrian grinned, having won the offense in the conversation. "she's called the ice queen around here. Riana's well. well far from, but Korina doesn't date. She never has according to Riana. Some of us thought maybe she was. you know. Anyway, seems that you proved us all wrong. Certainly means that you should be given some better treatment around here. James here couldn't even get her to look his way and he's usually got a way with the woman."

The boys laughed at the comment and then someone shouted _Jack._

Darrian turned to Harry, a glint in his eye. "It's a good idea. Want to play the most intense game that was ever invented?"

Harry nodded quickly, he didn't want to think about Korina at all right now. Besides, if Darrian could play something he could certainly play it.

"There's a catch though," Darrian warned.

It was hard for Harry to even stop and think about it, just the word intense made his blood pump. After watching the races he was sure that very little could be more intense, and if there was something he wanted to try it, to prove himself. Against Harry nodded to the question Darrian had asked, he was going to play.

"First you have to touch on it," Darrian said, holding out a card. "All the rules are one the card, you just touch one side, I touch the other, then we can play. It's a pretty good game, just some weird rules. But once you play. well it either makes or breaks you."

Harry nodded and touched the dot Darrian had pointed to. Darrian meanwhile touched the other dot. The card glowed and slipped slightly under their fingers, eventually forming two separate cards.

"Good. Let's get the brooms," he said, handing Harry one of the cards. On it the dot seemed to be changing color to red.

Something came over Harry and the eagerness he'd had only a moment before dimmed. "Wait a sec, why don't you explain it all to me."

"Read the card, I told you, it's got all the rules on it."

Looking down at the cards Harry could see that there was a small paragraph followed by a small list he read it over carefully.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick. You're about to jump off a flying broomstick!

Hello and welcome to the game of Jack. You're probably wondering what you're getting yourself into.  
The game 'Jack' was originally created in the mid 17th century by a small group of wizards who felt that Quidditch was.

Harry stopped reading for an instant, scanning until he came to the part that mattered.

There are very few actual rules in Jack.

1. In order to play the game Jack you must wager the most precious thing you have as part of the winnings.  
2. When the judge says Jack you must jump from your broom (which will be at a minimum of 1.5 kilometers above the ground unless prearranged heights can be agreed upon.)  
3. No use of spells to lighten, slow, or allow maneuverability in the air.  
4. In order to win the game you must be the last person to apparate away from the fall, apparating before or quitting before the games starts is an immediate loss.  
5. Don't kill yourself or strike the ground, you'll lose.

The rules, as simple as they were didn't explain it to Harry. He went over them at least a dozen times before he realized what they were saying. The paragraph before must have made more explanation.

He was about to jump off a broom _way_ above the ground and be forced to apparate away before actually hitting the ground.

"I can't apparate." Harry stuttered. "It's illegal unless you're of age."

"You didn't ever read the rules?" James asked, acting as if he were supremely surprised. "You were suppose to read the rules genius."

Harry looked up to Darrian, whose grin had faded and was smiling extremely oddly. "But, I can't win if I can't apparate." he said to Darrian, "there's no way I can play at all."

"I guess you lose then," Darrian said softly. He looked and acted completely different than he had been only a few minutes before.

"But. but." Harry said, almost ready to admit defeat, he didn't have much anymore. He had an invisibility cloak with him, maybe Darrian would accept that and just let things go.

"You have a Firebolt!" Darrian exclaimed, looking at his card.

Harry shivered, looking down at his. At the bottom of the card in a previously blank box there were words. _Signat 392 type 7.3 - Bambi, Firebolt_. He didn't understand what that meant, it must have been what Darrian's most precious item was.

"Yeah," Harry mumbled.

"You. you never said anything about it after everything I told you."

Harry shivered, he didn't want to give up his Firebolt. Sirius had given it to him, it was one fo the only things he had from Sirius still. Between it, the clothes he was wearing, and his two invisibility cloaks that was all he owned now.

"What about if I give you an inv." Harry started to ask.

Darrian shook his head, looking quite serious. "No. Can't break the rules, the winnings have already been determined. Anything that breaks the rules means that the person doing it looses. It's not a simple rule you know, you touched on it, it means you're bound to the game now, there's no way out.

Harry covered his face as the boys around him looked at him, most of them grinning wickedly. "You know, you score once and you think that you're the best on the block." One of them said.

The joke rippled through the rest of the boys, making them laugh softly at Harry who now seemed to be completely stuck.

"Tell you what," Darrian said, a smile on his face. "I'll give you a week. That means that in a week from now you meet me at my place and we'll play Jack. Since we didn't agree on when it was and there's no predefined rule I can give you that much." Darrian paused, looking around to the other boys with a sly grin on his face. "I recommend that you learn to apparate and quick," he laughed and then left, the other boys following.

Alone, Harry stood in the room feeling completely helpless. He hadn't even looked at the rules before agreeing to them, he should have listened to Tonks when she told him not to be around Darrian again. He should have taken her advice and been more careful. In the past two days he had made the two biggest mistakes of his life and he could only remember one of them.

After what seemed like hours had passed, Harry finally took leave of the room. Outside, whatever was happening didn't matter to him, the race that was taking place didn't matter. After all the real race had ended a long time ago. One by one Harry stepped down the steps trying to decide what to do. He couldn't learn to apparate in a week, it was impossible. He'd heard Fred and George talking about it and they took almost two full months to learn and their teacher had told them that it wasn't that far behind what was standard. Supposedly they'd learn to apparate the second half of their 6th year. Harry doubted he'd be able to learn even as fast as the twins. While they weren't all that proficient in everything they had a good feel for it and therefore it cam easier to them, they just didn't apply themselves.

He'd get a book. That was the best he could think of. And, for the next week, he'd spend every hour he could keep his eyes open learning to apparate. He hoped, for the sake of his Firebolt, that he would be able to learn quickly.

•


	7. Holes

Chapter 07

• Holes •

Somewhere around the time that the whistle blew for the last race Harry finally found a door that looked like an exit. He'd been wandering the halls for nearly an hour trying to discover an exit.

Avoiding the standard hall sentries and the groups of racers brought in on stretchers. He'd even seen Malfoy for an instant as he hid in a corner. He wasn't sure, but he could swear that his enemy had seen him in the shadows. But he was in too much pain to say anything at that time.

The door was a blue color and he was sure he'd come through it soon after entering the building. There was a label above it, but it was so old that it was barely visible.

Quietly he opened the door and walked in. It was not the door he'd thought he'd come through, it led to a room. As Harry turned to leave he heard a familiar curse and a crash. Quietly he closed the door and walked along the lockers, wondering why Tonks would be here.

At the end of the room, fighting with a whole barrage of broomsticks, was Seoniadh, still cursing. Harry didn't get too close, but stared at her from afar. It had to be Tonks, she cursed the same and the voice was the same. She confirmed it by kicking one of them and pouting. "I should've let it go. I'm becoming too much like mother. Harry is responsible, I need to learn to trust him more."

Pulling himself back, Harry slipped back out the door he'd come in, not sure what to think.

After at least another half hour of wandering aimlessly he came face to face with another racer, this one he knew. The racer, who didn't seem to recognize him, pushed him aside and continued on down the hallway.

"Draco." Harry whispered to himself.

The platinum haired boy, who apparently had extremely sensitive hearing, turned back to Harry. His eyes moved up and down Harry, assessing him and he made a half circle until Harry had to turn to him. Finally his eyes settled on Harry's face, with a hint of recognition and unfamiliarity there. "Do I know you?" he asked curiously, not quite being able to place Harry.

Remembering that he wasn't suppose to be there, Harry shook his head quickly. He'd dyed his hair earlier so it would still be blond and hopefully Draco wouldn't be able to place Harry's face without the scar, hair or eyes. "No," he shook his head. "I watched you in the races earlier though. I thought you were good," he said, holding back what he was about to say to Draco.

He was angry with himself for talking so nicely to Draco. There was a problem with being angry with him, it might spark a more vivid picture of Harry. He had a hard time forcing something nice out of his mouth, it would only inflate Draco's already inflated head. He didn't think it was true either, he just did it to get Draco from suspecting him, after all it was the last thing he'd say if Draco knew who he was.

"Hmpphh," Draco snorted. "I know that. It's those other racers, if they hadn't cheated the whole race I might've had a chance."

It took Harry a lot to not yell at him. He'd been the one that almost killed Seona because of his cruelty. "I saw you fly into the crowd," Harry said, covering up his anger. "Are you alright?"

Something about the question got Draco supremely irritated and his attitude changed quickly. "I'm fine," he growled and then pushed past Harry, continuing on down the hallway.

Smiling smugly Harry watched him go, at least he'd gotten some satisfaction in Draco's anger. It didn't last long. The card in his hand seemed to tug on him and he looked down at it again. He had to get to a bookstore and get a book but first he had to get out of the place.

Turning, he followed Draco at a distance. Hopefully Draco was leaving and he'd be able to get out easily.

Outside the sweet warm air filled his lungs and Harry set out at a quick pace heading for the nearest book show he knew of. Inside the store was a mess of books, every sort and not cleaned up like the one at Hogsmeade. Harry had to dig through the section that had books on apparating. Of course, there were a few on top, but they weren't anything that looked as if it were something he might want to look into. He didn't need a basic apparating book, he needed a thorough apparating book - and he knew there had to be a difference.

So, after discarding buying 'Apparating for Squibs' and 'Moving Like Merlin' Harry had to spend almost an hour pulling out several books that had possibilities. After all the work he had a stack of about 12 books to choose from. The attendant (a boy not much older than Harry) didn't look like he could help much and Harry didn't really want to trust him. After all, Darrian did know a lot of people it seemed and he wouldn't put it past him to be have this boy give Harry bad advice.

So for another hour he skimmed through the books one by one seeing what they provided. The first two were two advanced to start and Harry immediately put them aside. He needed something that had the basics as well as more advanced techniques. The third one had possibilities and he set it in a different pile. By the time an hour was up he had three piles. He discarded two of them, one too advanced and one too basic. He did know how to use magic and had a pretty good idea of how it worked, so he didn't need anything that just discussed the why, he needed the how.

When he was finally done going through the three possible books he decided on one scientifically, closing his eyes and picking the one that felt the most durable.

After paying for the book he returned to his hotel room where he locked himself in, reading the book as quick as possible that night.

Spending a whole day trying, by himself to apparate, Harry decided it was best to come to terms with Tonks. She was sorry, even if she didn't admit it to him. Deep inside he hoped that she'd understand that he was sorry even though he hated to admit it.

A few hours before dinner time Harry slipped a note under Tonks's door, asking her to meet him for dinner.

At the appointed time Harry was waiting at the front door, his hands tapping nervously on his knee. He needed help and right now all he had to turn to was Tonks. She showed up a few minutes late, smiling to him, but not saying anything even after they were seated.

"So…" Harry started, trying to find an easy way of telling Tonks what'd happened. "I need to learn to apparate," he said, smiling as best as possible.

Tonks didn't seem that interested and as she looked over the menu. When the waiter came Harry stopped, ordering the first thing on the menu while Tonks took her sweet time. The waiter disappeared and Harry opened his mouth to say something else as Tonks sipped on the drinks that appeared on their table.

The minutes ticked by and nothing more was said until the food arrived. Tonks immediately went to work on it while Harry just sat there trying to decide how best to bring it out.

"I've discovered a new sport," he said lightly. "It's called Jack, I'm playing Darrian next week."

"YOU WHAT!" Tonks said, choking on the food she'd just placed in her mouth.

The whole rest of the restaurant looked over to the table they were sitting at and Harry looked down. "Quiet Tonks," he whispered fiercely, gripping his own glass tighter.

Tonks just stared right at Harry, her mouth still agape - bits of rice falling from it as the seconds ticked by. Harry thought it looked extremely funny and despite the circumstances he was in, snorted with laughter.

It took Tonks a full two minutes to speak again. Her mouth closed as Harry pulled out the card from his pocket, handing it to her. She looked it over carefully, nodding her head as she did. "I thought so," she whispered to herself. Harry just stared at her.

"Well, looks like you've really gotten yourself into a mess this time," she said, looking completely content again.

Harry, who was even more distressed at what Tonks had said at first, was now staring at her wide-eyed, hopping that she'd be able to help him. "Yeah," he muttered, apologetically. He hated having to say he was sorry though and, unless Tonks asked him for it, he wasn't about to do it.

"Well," she said, grinning from ear to ear, "I guess we're just going to have to teach you to apparate." Lately her mood had been changing drastically with the slightest events.

Still, the statement made Harry feel better, but he didn't understand how it was possible, he'd spent a whole 24 hours trying to figure out what to do based on the book he'd been given and he hadn't gotten anywhere. Could Tonks, the person who was always stumbling over something, teach him how to apparate in just a handful of days?

"Alright I suppose you've got a book then?" she asked, looking at him quite seriously.

Shaking his head Harry slowly drew the book out from behind his back where he'd hid it from her.

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Oh, I know a lot more than that," she said with a smile. "You're going to be using a lot of energy, so get eating. First lesson, you can't not eat when you're learning. It'll really drain you as it is. So if you don't eat, you won't be able to learn. Then - after we eat, you and I are going to go buy some supplies at the apothecary. We have some potions to brew so that we'll be able to stay up for the rest of the week. It's not going to be easy to learn in such a short amount of time, but it is enough time." Tonks said, smiling at Harry. She seemed to be her old self again, with the smile she was giving him.

The food on Harry's plate disappeared rather quickly once he'd been told to eat. A lot of the tension that had built up before about telling Tonks disappeared. Tonks simply ate like normal, looking at Harry in between bites. "You know," she said, stopping after a little while. "I'm surprised this Darrian gave you a whole week, usually once you've been ensnared in the trap then you're stuck with it, they rarely give you more than a day or two. You must have really caught his eye."

Darrian was being soft on him. Harry hated him for it, it wasn't something that he wanted. Then again, it was the only chance he had, so he was willing to accept it. But he hated Darrian now, and he hated himself for being tricked into doing such a thing. How, in two days time could he come to trust someone so thoroughly that he would sign a wizarding contract with them without even looking at it?

"He gave you something didn't he?" Tonks asked, seeing Harry's eyes scrunched in thought.

At first Harry couldn't recall anything that Darrian had given to him, but then he thought about it again. Right before going to Club Craft Darrian had given him a pill that had made him feel weird. He nodded to Tonks who also nodded, covering her face. "I shouldn't have let you go off by yourself. It got you into a lot of trouble, I knew something like that was going to happen if you got to running around the island without someone who knew what goes on around here."

After finishing a plate Harry looked to the waiter again as he took their plates. He wasn't sure how to ask, but he was still hungry. It suddenly occurred to him how hungry he was. He hadn't eaten for almost a day and a half and even then it felt as if he hadn't eaten in a week. Something was different, maybe he was really doing something and he didn't know it. He must not have been paying enough attention to it.

Tonks made a motion and the waiter nodded, moving away very quickly.

"You know… I'm surprised you got a good book," Tonks said as she flipped through the first few pages of it. "Most people don't get this they get something like 'How to Apparate in a Week' or 'Apparition for Squibs'. None of them ever tell you enough to learn to apparate, you have to have someone train you or none of the methods work."

The waiter served Harry another plate of food and as Harry pressed his fork into the meat, he looked up at Tonks. "How is it that you know so much about the game?" he asked before stuffing a piece of the meat into his mouth.

"I used to play." Tonks said, disheartened. "I used to do a lot of things around here, stuff I probably shouldn't have done, but I still did. When I would come here I could get away with anything, especially after I learned to change my looks."

Nodding Harry didn't tell her that it was her he'd seen at the races. She'd told Darrian that she loved him which was quite embarrassing to him, and he didn't know why she's said it.

"So why did you leave?" he asked.

"Well, you see, this wasn't my home. I only came here for a few years because I was always getting into trouble. I came back and went to Hogwarts for the last four years of school. I did come here, during the summers, but when I went to be an Auror I decided that it was best if I didn't come back, it's part of my life that I don't always like to remember."

"Why?" Harry questioned. "What happened?"

Tonks gave him a disapproving look and he realized that he was prying into her personal life, which wasn't any of his concern. Then with a dismissive look she held out her hand, palm upwards. Harry saw nothing strange at first but noticed her skin was melting on her forearm. It took a minute but it slowly darkened until a tattoo appeared. It was like nothing Harry'd ever seen before, dozens of triangles surrounding one with an eye in the center. The whole pattern roughly formed a triangle itself.

"Viatorian," was all Tonks said.

What it meant Harry wasn't sure of, but he didn't want to push anymore for information, she'd already given him more than she needed to.

Some time later, Harry stood just in front of Tonks, his head leaning against the nearby wall. A few yards from him stood Tonks, looking just as weary.

"Alright. One step at a time," Tonks said, slightly frustrated. She'd had a very long three days and Harry was barely progressing.

Taking a few steps back from Harry she looked around, making sure there was nothing that would be too close to cause harm. "Right here. That's under 4 yards. I'm going to hang that blanket again, so take a good look at this area, you can't see it this time."

Harry nodded and memorized the scene. He shouldn't have to do it he'd seen it a good number of times already, but his mind kept clouding up. "Remember Harry," Tonks said, holding the makeshift wall (a dowel with a large blanket hanging over it) in front of him. "I don't want you to splinch yourself; I'm already going to get in enough trouble when Dumbledore does find out. Remember you have to close your mind from everything else even if it's only for a brief second, it has to be empty, just you inside."

Once again, Harry nodded. He concentrated for a long time trying to picture himself in that place on the other side of the blanket. It took a lot of concentration to picture everything around him, but Tonks said it was necessary to see it all perfectly when he started. In the beginning it was because she didn't want him to splinch himself, she said the easiest way was to perform a detailed jump from one place to another.

An unbelievable feeling filled him again, a sort of jolt of electricity running through him and he knew it was about to happen. Concentrating harder Harry continued to picture the place on the other side of the sheet, he needed to learn to do this.

With a slight tingling sensation he moved. In the room, an ear splitting cracking sound reverberated through the walls quite a bit deeper than the normal sound. Tonks immediately covered her ears, but it was useless, the sound had already come twice when her hands finally made it there.

Wearing a proud smile Tonks could see that Harry had moved from one place to another. "DON'T PUSH SO HARD." She said overzealously, dropping her hands and quieting down. "You don't need to push so much energy into the jump, you're not going very far. You're going to take the whole room with you if you keep doing that. Look, you even brought part of the chair. You can get splinched if you bring other things with you, it's a lot harder to control other things," she finished, pointing to an object which had fallen to the floor.

Turning, Harry could see that the corner of the nearest chair had been removed completely, leaving a three legged chair behind. He combed his hands through his hair smiling nervously, but almost laughing too. "I still did it right? And with something between were I was going."

"Yeah," Tonks said returning his nervous smile with a much brighter one. "You're finally getting it now. You've just got to trust yourself more, don't worry about working so hard. You're obviously good enough to apparate, you just have to train your body to do it better."

"Alright then, let's do it again," Harry said, moving back to where he was. "Come on, hold up the sheet."

Shaking her head Tonks sat down. "I need a break Harry, we both do. You're almost completely worn out from all the work we've done to get this far. I doubt you could even keep your eyes open if it wasn't for that draught we concocted. We're both going to take a break, a short nap should do it."

The look in Harry's eyes betrayed his emotions but Tonks didn't see it, she was tired. When they'd been working on the potion the night before she'd had an accident with a nearby lamp and spilled the ginseng. With Harry's quick thinking they'd been able to reclaim about half the contents, but it was nowhere near enough to keep them awake for as long as a full strength potion would. Then Harry had insisted she drink half of it even though it wouldn't have been enough for just one person.

Truthfully they were both exhausted and Tonks knew it. The shop was closed or they would have just rebrewed the potion, it'd be open tomorrow though and she'd be able to straighten the whole mess out. This time she'd insure the bottle was unbreakable and still capped until she gave it to Harry.

After sending Harry to bed she turned to her own room, collapsing quickly into a deep sleep.

Tonks woke up, still rather tired. When she looked to the clock on the wall she sat up quickly, much more awake. She'd slept for nearly eleven hours. Which wasn't much, considering the circumstances, but was far longer than the three hours she'd planned on sleeping. Somehow her body clock had got knocked off schedule and she didn't wake up like usual.

Hurriedly she rushed out the door to her room. She knew they didn't have the time to sleep that long. She'd been pushing it with the few hours of sleep she'd forced Harry to take. If Harry was going to continue at the pace he was going it would take all their time to get him good enough to apparate in mid-air.

A rumbling from the next room caught her attention and she slowed as she passed by the table in the center of the room, pulling her wand from her side. The door that connected the two rooms was closed, but she'd left it unlocked. Carefully she slipped her hand around the doorknob and turned it slowly, keeping her hand tightly against it as not to make noise. If someone was on the other side of the door she wanted to surprised them.

Dashing through the door she was immediately greeted with a large pile of broken furniture. Before she could even gasp it started to topple on top of her. Her hand came up and from her mouth came a charm, but before the words had finished a small piece of a table had struck her wand, throwing the charm into the wall where it harmlessly was absorbed.

The charm was not in vain however. Harry, who was standing on the other side of the pile snapped around and quickly stopped the pile from falling completely.

He looked surprised as Tonks pulled herself out from under the pile of broken items.

"Hey," he said quietly, helping her up.

Looking to the pile that had nearly buried her Tonks sputtered. "What was _that_?" Then she looked around the room. "And… what happened to everything?" The room was completely void of any furniture at all, it had all been placed in the pile she'd run into.

The guilty look she received made her feel awful inside for pushing it so quickly. Even the floor had some areas that it was missing boards.

"Yeah, well I was going fix everything, really," he replied soon after. "I kept trying after you fell asleep, but I think I have it now. Watch," he said, smiling when Tonks didn't scold him for not going to bed. He wasn't sure how she'd feel about him defying her directly.

In an instant, Harry disappeared in front of her. The room filled with light and Harry appeared across the room. An odd feeling passed through her body and she paused her thoughts briefly, not sure what it was. It was almost as if something was pulling her. A crack followed by a deep rumbling made her tremble. He wasn't doing it right, she'd seen someone apparate similarly and it always ended up with that person being splinched.

Somehow, Harry was just fine, albeit breathing harder than normal, but he seemed in perfect physical condition. Tonks stared at him openmouthed as he took a few jaunty steps across the room. "So?" he asked eagerly, "was it alright?"

At first Tonks could not answer. She was astonished that he had made such progress in the few hours she'd been asleep. Had she not seen it she would have considered in impossible. Remus had been right, Harry was quite keen when he put his mind to it.

Finally gaining her wits Tonks opened her mouth slowly. What' about another room, somewhere you haven't apparated into yet? Somewhere you don't feel as comfortable apparating into."

Harry nodded his head eagerly. "Alright, what about your room?" He asked and before she even answered he was gone. In the room she barely heard a sound, the usual noise that was produced was somehow being almost completely muted when he left, there was a slight whizzing sound but she only noticed it because she was listening for it.

In the other room however she could hear a deep rumbling through the room and was glad they'd got the end room for Harry, he hadn't disturbed anyone as of yet, but if he was going to continue in this fashion he was going to definitely disturb someone else.

Hurriedly she moved into her room to find Harry kneeled over, breathing heavily. She was quite surprised that it hadn't happened before if he'd been apparating the whole time. Then she considered that maybe he hadn't, the first two weeks she'd worked at it she could barely do it for more than an hour or two at a time. "Harry," she asked, "have you been working on this the whole time?"

"Yeah," he said quietly. Tonks barely heard him at all. She wondered why he was being so different from normal. Usually he was quiet, yes, but not like this. It was as if he were afraid of her.

When he finally stood up and it was a little more obvious what was going on - he was exhausted and he was trying to hide it. "You need to get some sleep Harry."

"But, I'm so close. Show me how to do it right - I know its not perfect, it doesn't sound right. That way I don't have to remember as much next time."

Shaking her head, Tonks almost refused. Then, seeing his face she couldn't say no he reminded her of a puppy dog that had lost its master and there was no way she could say no to it. "Alright," she heaved a sigh hating herself for allowing him to control her. "Explain it to me, how you're doing it. If you don't understand just explain it as best as possible."

Nodding Harry opened his mouth and yawned. "Alright. If I find a place I want to go to I close my eyes for a second and picture it. I focus on it like you taught me… and when I open my eyes up again it's almost like I can see a hole around me. It's easy after that, I just pretend I'm stepping through it and all of the sudden I'm there. What I don't get is if I'm not doing it right what I'm doing wrong. I tried everything I could, I even actually walked into it, but nothing was different at all."

Once again Tonks stared at him confused. She had no idea exactly what he was talking about. She'd never actually experienced it like that, and she'd never had anyone tell her that that was the way they did it until now. "Uhm… Well. Up to the concentrating you have everything right. But you shouldn't have to open your eyes at all, once you've found that place you should just simply move there."

"Then… why do I see a hole?"

Tonks wasn't sure. She didn't know what the hole was if it only represented something then who had made it in the first place? "I… don't know Harry, I don't even understand what the hole is," she answered, hoping it wouldn't make him worry. "What's the furthest that you've gone exactly?"

"To your room," Harry said. "I've been just jumping back and forth in this room the whole time. I knew it was a little bit noisy and I didn't want to get us in trouble. I put a silencing charm up too."

"I'm afraid it's worn off already," Tonks said. "But that isn't a big deal, you have the back room, no one can hear you through me room if that's where you've been apparating the whole time."

Putting all the information together Tonks made sense of why she'd slept so long. It had probably been the rumbling that had awakened her in the first place. But it hadn't been more than a minute for her to get up… so… "Harry, how many times have you done this?"

"Apparate? I don't know, I lost count around four hundred. That was a few hours ago though, so maybe six or seven hundred times. I slowed down a little, you're right I'm just a little tired."

Without a doubt, Tonks was speechless. Even though she knew he wasn't lying she couldn't conceive that he'd actually done it that many times without more potion. Harry noticed it this time, it was more than a little obvious. "I tried to do it more, really, but I just didn't have enough energy."

"No, it's alright. You just surprised me. Why don't you try going somewhere really far. Like say, Hogsmeade."

Though Harry didn't look very sure that he could do it he still nodded his head. He was listening to everything that Tonks told him to do, well almost everything. He was sure he was doing it wrong and he had to figure out what it was.

Meanwhile Tonks stared at him. She was surprised that he'd accepted the offer, but then, after a while she thought it shouldn't have been that much of a surprise, he was really trying to prove himself as quick as possible. What he didn't know was that she'd said it just to see what would happen if he couldn't go somewhere. She really didn't want him to try going to far and end up splinched, but she had to see. Hogsmeade was too far for her, she already knew that, she'd tried it more than once.

She blinked and as quick as that Harry was gone. There was a much louder hissing this time. Tonks looked around, wondering if he'd just gone to another room or something, but as the seconds ticked by she heard no rumbling and her hands started to quiver. To the best of her knowledge Harry was dead. There was the option that he'd made it but it was so remote she didn't even think of it at first.

Meanwhile Harry appeared in front of the shrieking shack, right where he'd imagined he was going. His legs collapsed underneath him again and he laid on the ground for several minutes while he recuperated his strength. He didn't know why, but the longer he was working at it the more tired he was getting physically. It was magic, and he wasn't working that hard, why was he getting tired?

When he'd gained enough strength to stand he saw that a boy was staring at him from the road that led directly to Hogsmeade. His mind had utterly closed off the noise he made when he'd come in, but several people had heard it. Another person joined the first, this time an older woman. She scolded the first and with continual glances at Harry hauled him away from the site.

Even though Harry was exhausted he wasn't too tired to go in for a butterbeer. Tonks had told him to go to here, but not to come back immediately, so he'd take a break for a few minutes and get something to drink. Hopefully she wouldn't mind.

Inside the Three Broomsticks Harry ordered a butterbeer and sat down at the furthest table in the corner. As he sipped on the butterbeer his mind returned to the thought that had been distracting him for the past three days. Korina. Maybe if he asked really nice there was a potion that Snape could make that would make him remember what had happened. but, Snape wasn't around right now, and he doubted that the professor would anyway. Was there some sort of memory charm that could help him? He'd have to owl Hermione about it.

A flash of Korina laying next to him disturbed him. He really didn't know if he wanted to remember, he wanted to forget the whole thing had happened altogether. Taking a full swig of butterbeer Harry just closed his eyes. He hadn't seen Korina yet and so he hadn't had to talk to her about it. Maybe she'd never talk to him again, after all she was working with Darrian, they had to be. He doubted they were even from NorCal or wherever it was they'd said.

Darrian had betrayed him and it hurt. He knew there was a lesson to be learned, but it hurt more than anything just to know that he'd allowed himself to be duped.

After finishing his butterbeer and purchasing a bottle for Tonks he made a quick stop at the Post Office and jotted a few words to Hermione asking her to research a memory charm to help him remember. He signed it and sent it off then headed back to the Shrieking Shack. He didn't want someone to see him Disapparate in the middle of the street, after all he was too young to be doing it. He still had just over two more weeks before he turned 16.

As he mounted the hill he found that several people were standing around the shack, some examining the ground, some walking around the area, looking for something. Harry groaned. They must've seen him apparate in and since he was underaged, they'd come to get him into trouble. Why had Tonks sent him here if he was going to trouble?

Of course it was his fault he realized, if he'd left again they wouldn't have had anyway to trace it to him. It was a good thing that he'd been paying attention or he would have just walked right into one of them. As it was one of them spotted him as he turned and headed after him. Harry didn't want to have to deal with him however and concentrated on the room he'd been in. It took a little longer than he'd thought and the Auror, he could tell now, got within a yard or two of him before he Disapparated.

When he returned no one was in his room. His return was marked by a deep rumbling that incased more than just his room and the next. In truth the whole hotel trembled as he arrived. Tonks, who'd been searching through her things desperate to find the Portkey, stopped. She rushed back into the room to find Harry collapsed again, breathing hard.

"WHERE THE BLOODY HELL WERE YOU?" she screamed.

Harry looked at her fearfully. He didn't expect her to be that angry about staying a little longer. "I stopped in at the Three Broomsticks and got you a butterbeer," he said quietly, taking it out of his robe and offering it to her.

The outburst had surprised her as well. She dropped to her knees and threw her arms around her. "I'm sorry, I just didn't think that you'd actually make it. And you were gone for so long… I thought maybe… maybe I'd gotten you…" she stopped and dropped her head sobbing uncontrollably on his shoulder.

An understanding of what she was saying crept over him. Flashes of Cedric grinning down at him filled his mind. Everything had been good but in under a minute it'd changed to the most horrible experience of his life. He knew what she was feeling.

"I'm really sorry, I couldn't come back right away, it really wore me out."

"It's alright," she said, calming quickly. Her sobs disappeared but her eyes were bright red when she pulled away from him. "We need to go do something. You've earned it. Why don't you get some sleep while I go pick up some ingredients," she continued. Pointing towards the bed which was now in its proper place. The whole room had been fixed while she was waiting (hopefully) for him to return. She had panicked at first, but calmed and waited, rather impatiently, for his return, hoping for the best. It was when he hadn't that she'd gotten desperate.

It was hard not to agree with her acting the way she was. He just nodded and laid down in his bed falling asleep promptly. He awoke hours later to a slight noise from the other room. Yawning and stretching he stood and went into the other room where he found her brewing a potion.

"So you finally woke up," she said when she noticed him coming in. "I figured I'd let you sleep until I at least got this potion done. You're almost good enough that I would expect you to win if you know a few of the tricks. I don't think we have to push so hard now."

"How long did I sleep?" he yawned.

She grinned at him. "Oh, almost a day. Personally I'd have thought you'd sleep longer. With the way you were worn out like you were anything less than a day would not have been enough," she paused as she dropped something else into the potion. "Oh, there's a parchment on the table I want you to read, it's a detailed explanation of how you and I are going to win this wager."

•


	8. Psychology 101

Chapter 08

• Psychology 101 •

At the appointed time, Harry showed up at the arranged place, knocking softly. Even with the confidence spell Tonks had put on him he was still feeling slightly weak in the knees.

No one answered, but Harry was expecting that. Together he and Tonks had discussed everything that Darrian would do to intimidate and scare him. Not showing up on time was one of the first things on the list. In three or four minutes, right when most people would think to leave, Darrian would rush up, breaking some of the hope Harry would have of getting away clean.

Just about the time that Harry was thinking about leaving Darrian showed up with a grin on his face. "Sorry about that," he said. "Got caught up at a meeting beforehand."

Harry just shrugged his shoulders like Tonks had told him to do. "Ah well," he yawned. "Shall we get this over with then?"

Just as Tonks had said Darrian was slightly perturbed, but he covered it up quickly. "Where are we headed?" Harry asked lazily.

Nodding his head towards the hill Darrian started off at a quick pace. Harry wasn't far behind, "James has offered to act as the referee. I'm leaving it up to you though, seeing that you're the one at a disadvantage."

"It's alright," Harry said, playing his part to a tee. "I already have someone that offered to act as referee."

From his vantage point Harry could not see whether the performance was getting to Darrian, but he was hoping it was. They continued on in silence, giving Harry more time to review the plan and wonder where exactly Tonks was. She was supposed to be following him under the invisibility cloak. But he hadn't heard her at all.

It was odd, since they'd been on the island she'd been completely different from usual. Not all the time, just… whenever something serious came up she acted serious about it. Actually she was starting to act more like herself now, coming up with this plan and all. Harry felt it was a little more serious than she'd played at, but somehow her ease had helped him to.

"It's just ahead," Darrian said after a dozen minutes had passed. Harry looked up to see a empty lightly forested area, it was part of the island that was completely uninhabited. He didn't respond to Darrian though, he just continued on, making a yawning sound again. The acting was almost too fake in his mind, but he was trying to make sure he did it as Tonks had instructed him.

Up ahead someone appeared to be waiting for them. When Harry noticed who it was, he smiled. He hadn't even thought about using something like that. Darrian slowed, his first time of showing real surprise.

"Wotcher Harry!" Tonks said,

"Hey Seona," Harry said, taking advantage of the situation as best as he could. She was not good at masking the surprise that Harry seemed to know who she was.

"I remember you," she said to Darrian as she approached.

Darrian turned to Harry and then glanced to Tonks. "You _know_ her?"

"What, I can't bring friends to the island?" Tonks began, making Harry nervous, he didn't want Tonks to overstep her role and screw up. "Besides Harry here needed some fresh air, somewhere away from England."

"But…" Darrian sputtered. "You said you'd never watched the Broom races before."

Again Harry shrugged his shoulders. Darrian was losing confidence already and Harry didn't want to mess things up so he'd rather play the quiet one until the race was done with. For a moment Darrian almost looked angry. "You didn't even bet on her in the race, you bet on that Malfoy fellow."

Harry hadn't told Tonks about everything that had happened at the races and her eyebrow raised, looking at Harry with a questioning glance. Feeling that he was getting to a 'disadvantage' (like Tonks had explained) Harry felt the need to explain himself.

"Well, it was only a snitch then, wasn't it? Not much of a bet really. I figured she'd have her hands full with the broom she was riding," he said lazily.

The conversation was building and the little lies were becoming too much. Tonks decided to put a stop to it. "So? We going to play or are we just going to stand around and talk. Harry, I really wish you would've rescheduled to earlier. That way we could not have to use the day up. Would've been a good day to go watch the mermaids again," she said, taking Harry's hand into hers and acting a lot more personal while Darrian was watching.

"Yeah," Darrian said roughly. He turned away from the hurriedly and headed towards an open area. Several people emerged when he called out.

"Alright," said Darrian with a notable difference in confidence. "Do I need to go over any of the rules?" He asked while all the boys approached, talking excitedly between themselves.

Shaking his head Harry let Tonks's hand drop and looked up. "Nope, I pretty much got the idea down. This'll be over in no time." He paused, trying to remember what Tonks had told him to say. "It is okay it we use Seona as the referee right? She hasn't played in a while and wanted to referee this time."

"You play?" Darrian asked curiously.

Smiling, Tonks flipped her arm again and Harry could clearly see the mark on her forearm. Harry still didn't know what it meant, and wished he did now. Obviously it was something that was important, Darrian knew what it was immediately. "Viatori," he murmured just barely loud enough for Harry to hear. "They only replace members when one dies."

"Or leaves." Tonks said. "But it's not my membership that's in question. Am I gonna be the acting referee or not?"

"You know how?"

"…'course. Seen it enough times. 'sides, want to see how close Harry gets this time."

A few people were wandering along the path up the hill and Darrian nodded. "Sure. But there's one condition," he said, reaching the group of friends who were waiting for him. "I want a kiss when I win."

"Confident isn't he?" Tonks asked laughing and looking over to Harry.

As smugly as possible (he tried to imitate Malfoy) he grinned. "Sounds that way."

Neither of them looked back to Darrian immediately, but if they had they would've notice his confidence fading again. To him their ruse was working perfectly and had only been upped when Seona had ended up being Harry's friend. Now his confidence was overwhelming, not like when they'd left him with his mouth agape in the booth at the races.

"Brooms?" Darrian asked, trying to regain his edge. He wondered if he should've taken some more mist before he met Harry, it certainly would've helped him right now.

James handed Darrian a set of brooms. They were not the newest brooms either, and many were missing twigs and hadn't been polished in a while.

"Not much," Darrian said.

"But gets the job done, right?" Harry finished for him.

Tonks had gone over this too. The rickety brooms were a ruse, making people scared to even ride them. She said it usually didn't stop people from trying, but it really made them rethink things. The brooms were old for another reason, some of the protection spells were removed from them so that they could fly to the proper height and jump from their broom without it interfering at all.

"Right," Darrian said, pausing.

While he was quiet Harry prepared himself for the next confidence buster. Next to him Tonks was thinking about what she could do to break down the confidence Darrian had. "I guess I could live with giving the winner a kiss, do it enough already," she said smiling. "Let's do this race though, seems that there's a lot of people gathering."

"Always happens," Darrian said looking down below them. "They hear about a match and come to watch. I can't believe how they always seem to know."

James pointed to a rock on the hillside. "This'll be the apparating point. Try not to go too far off course."

"You're not ref this time James," Darrian said. "Seona here's gonna ref for Harry."

The plan was working, and not just on Darrian. Most of the boys were gaping when Darrian revealed the information. The woman that Darrian had been after was with Harry, holding his hand and acting as if she knew him quite well.

"Right," Tonks said. "We'll be using the same apparating point. We'll be jumping as soon as Darrian's ready."

"I'm ready now, but I can't say the same for Harry," Darrian said, using some of the same lines he always used. He really was confused and unsure how to act around Harry now.

Another line from the notes Harry'd read. Tonks seemed to know it all and had prepared him for it. Hopefully her potions would be enough to keep him from going berserk and apparating away as soon as they jumped.

"I've been ready my whole life," Harry said calmly, but his face betrayed him. Luckily Darrian wasn't paying attention to his face, instead he was spending time examining the brooms. Harry took the time to use another of the lines. That Darrian was likely to use. "Your choice on brooms. Don't want to give you too much of a disadvantage."

Though the brooms had nothing to do with the act of apparating away it was just another way of someone demonstrating their power and overwhelming confidence. It didn't matter to Harry that he was doing it. Darrian had been trying to do it the whole time.

The ride up was quiet, Harry fooled around on the broom a bit seeing what it could do. It was interesting that such an old broom could do so much and he'd have to ask Tonks about it later. Now that she'd revealed herself as Seona he could just ask her about the races too.

"Right," Tonks said loudly as the approached the height they would jump at. She knew it from experience, even though she carried a instrument with her that told her where she was. "You both agree on this spot?"

Harry just sort of shrugged nonchalantly again and Darrian nodded.

"Good," Tonks said, looking down. "Just about time to jump."

"I'll be waiting for that kiss," Darrian said with a smile.

Tonks laughed pretty harshly. "You're going to be waiting for a _long_ time." She turned to Harry. "Ready to jump?" he nodded. Then she turned to Darrian. "Ready to jump?" he nodded.

Harry took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. He went over Tonks's mind exercise, breathing in and out slowly and focusing himself. She had told him that, above all, he needed to keep his concentration in the jump.

"Five."

Another deep breath and Harry opened his eyes, feeling his whole body tingle. The prospect of jumping off his broom was something that really made him feel restless.

"Four."

Harry glanced over to Darrian, Tonks had gone over what he was to do through the whole jump. He was supposed to catch his eye now. The problem was that Darrian was staring at his hands, concentrating fiercely.

"Three."

Feeling a bit of panic Harry looked over to Tonks who was staring at him, smiling. She mouthed a quick _you can do it,_ and then smiled again. The alarm he'd felt went away and he looked over at Darrian. Tonks had been trying to teach him more about thinking on his feet when he'd been training with her. Maybe it was best to do that now. He needed to break Darrian's confidence.

"Two."

It came to him and suddenly Harry was laughing. There was a belated breath as Tonks looked over to Harry, slightly confused at his actions. The harsh laughter broke Darrian's concentration too and he looked over to Harry, confused. He released the grip he had on the broom and looked straight at Darrian.

"One," Tonks said after a slight pause.

Two sets of eyes connected and Harry winked. Then after blowing a kiss in an over exaggerated motion he heard the last word.

"Jack."

It all happened so fast that Harry didn't even realize he'd jumped. Darrian wasn't far behind, likely more because he'd done it so many times it was habit. The kiss and the wink had thrown him off the most. It wasn't just the wink either, when he'd stared at Harry's eyes he'd seen something that surprised him, the brown eyes that he'd stared at only a few minutes before were now brilliantly green.

The cold air whipped around both the boys as they fell. Harry was feeling a rush like he'd never experienced before. This was not flying, not like on a broom. He extended his arms to the side and his lose clothing caught a drift, slowing him. The wind still whipping at his face, Harry barely felt the urge to breathe, he simply wanted to hold the feeling forever.

"WAHOOO!" he screamed at the top of his lungs as he turned slightly and the wind rolled him through the air like a doll. He spun and dove, twisted and turned, playing around in the air like he'd grown up doing the stuff.

Darrian was miffed to say the least.

At first he'd thought Harry was just over courageous, and then maybe that it was a farce. Now, hearing Harry scream out in pleasure and seeing him fooling around in the air he wasn't sure about himself anymore. He tried to reason with himself, he'd been the one that had picked Harry as the target, right?

Not really, Harry had shown up at the house with Riana who was known to work with him during her stays.

The night club had been his idea, right?

Yeah, for the most part. But Harry had not acted as expected. He'd loosened up almost immediately and between the drinks and the girls Darrian had almost decided to not trick him into playing. The one thing was that Harry had disappeared with Korina when the night was ending and then slipped out of the house before the morning. Darrian didn't like that, not because he was overprotective, but because he was jealous.

Then there was the races.

Harry was obviously lying about that. Surely if he knew Seona he'd been to a race or two. Hell, he was probably pretty good at them. He did seem to know a lot about racing and he did have a Firebolt.

And last, the game.

It would have been just as easy to con a ten year old. It was almost too easy now that he looked back on it. Harry had signed it without even a glance or thought. Then he'd collapsed when he found out that he had to learn to apparate. That must have been a lie too because he was four yards away and didn't seem too have the slightest worry in the world. Maybe it had been a part of his con. Make it seem like he'd been given the worst circumstances imaginable and then snap Darrian over his knee easily.

The overwhelming proof that he'd been the one conned filled Darrian and he glanced over at the over zealous Harry. There had been stories about con men conning the con men, but he'd never believed them until now. How could this boy, someone not even 16, have so easily manipulated him?

He refused to lose. He was the best on the island, and he'd never lost. But then he'd never gone against someone that was really good at it either, not since the first time when he'd been conned and won. He'd one out of shear stupidity though, the guy he'd been playing with screwed up and he took advantage of it.

Something was different about Harry this time. Darrian stared, trying to figure out what it was.

It caught him by surprise when he did notice. The hair, which had been completely blond earlier was now completely black. There was something odd going on but Darrian couldn't pinpoint what it was. Harry yelled again and turned to his side, looking like a fool, but his eyes connected to Darrian's again.

_Most easily recognizable by the green eyes and the lightning shaped scar on his forehead, Harry Potter is one of the most famous wizards of our time. Through continual battles he shows his aptitude at all sorts of magic. Albus Dumbledore, another great wizard, is believed to be teaching Harry many of his own tricks. In the first trial of the TriWizard tournament held at Hogwarts…_

The words of the book he'd reread two days ago came back to him as he stared at the lightning shaped scar that was now etched across Harry's forehead.

It was impossible.

Then he remembered something Seona had said about being in love with Harry Potter. It was obvious that Seona was showing Harry some affection. She'd mentioned she kissed him a lot. Then there was a comment from Korina, she'd told Darrian not to mention Harry Potter around him, that he has some pretty strong feelings about him and didn't seem to like to discuss it.

Lastly there was the name. It should have been obvious, but really how many people who attend Hogwarts would be named Harry?

Surely a few, but would they be the right age, have the same hair color and eye color? A lightning shaped scar? It had been hidden before, but Darrian knew he'd had green eyes before in the club, but he'd figured it was just something with the lights because even without Harry using a wand (Darrian was always watchful of wands) his eyes had changed back.

Harry Potter.

There was no doubt it was him anymore as Darrian glanced over to a person he'd idolized since he'd found about magic. Maybe it was because he was a orphan too and had grown up with muggle parents. His parents also hated him, not enough to abandon him, but there were stories in the book he'd read.

Harry Potter was conning him.

Not sure whether he should be honored or feel betrayed Darrian just stared. Harry Potter, he repeated in his head.

Still, he would not allow himself to lose. He couldn't. His most precious object he'd spent four weeks to get, conning a Breeding Maven to get one of her experiments. It was one of the only times he'd done it himself, keeping everyone out of it because he wanted the prize all to himself for once.

Then Harry did something that he'd never even thought of, something so unexpected that Darrian knew he'd lost. The ground wasn't far and Harry had stopped spinning, but he was facing up, not down.

It was even a surprise to Harry, the confidence potion seemed to be working wonders for him after the initial jump. There was still a chance of loosing if he didn't scare Darrian more and so he'd just done whatever he could to scare Darrian. It seemed to be working. Darrian was gone in the next instant.

Feeling happy, Harry concentrated on the place that he'd been told to apparate to. A hole didn't appear though. Harry tried again, a little more frantic, he wasn't looking at the ground but he could feel it closing in on him. The feeling of the jump was still overwhelming him and he concentrated harder, pushing it from his mind.

Just in time the hole appeared and he fell right through it.

An deep explosion seemed to have gone off as Harry reappeared, rocking the whole area violently. Most people were blinded by the light that was created from the movement.

Signing with relief Harry opened his eyes, which had been shut in fear, to Darrian's face standing over him. "Potter," he whispered. "You're a real freak, you know that?"

"YOU IDIOT!" Tonks bellowed over him. "I told you to apparate as soon as he apparated. The first thing I told you was to not be overwhelmed by the feeling, wasn't it?"

"You mean…" Darrian stared at him in disbelief. "That was your _first _time? But… you got a yard from the ground. I thought you were going to hit."

Harry scratched his head sheepishly, not really understanding how close he'd come to death. "Yeah, well, had a problem concentrating enough to apparate."

Someone snapped a picture and Tonks threw her arms around Harry protectively. "Better change those features," Darrian whispered. "It's not every day that the great Harry Potter makes appearances."

Several people began to close in on them and Tonks pulled Harry into a kiss, hiding him partly with her cloak while her lose hand used four spells on Harry in quick succession. When Harry stood up he didn't look anything like himself, and not just the hair and eyes. His whole face was different, longer with a light scar from the above his right eye all the way down his cheek.

"What's his name?" Someone asked as snapshots were taken. Harry glanced at the crowd, almost awed. There'd been as many people at the Tri Wizard tournament.

"Sly," Darrian answered. "I wasn't sure until now, but it seems he's got bigger balls than I do."

"Will there be a rematch?" another person asked. Harry continued to stare. In the 10 minutes that they'd take n to make the climb it seemed that they'd made a festival of it.

"No rematches, not that I know of. I think one's good enough for now. The best man has won and I'm willing to admit it."

"What were the prizes up for bid?"

"I think," Darrian said quietly, turning to James. "That it's about time we took our leave."

James nodded and pulled something from his pockets. Turning away from the crowd Darrian looked at Harry and Tonks. "Meet me back at my place, alright? Oh, and I'd close your eyes for a few seconds."

Harry squeezed his eyes shut and there was a flash. When he opened his eyes the whole area was covered in a sort of smoke. "Hurts the eyes and throat for a few seconds, good for getting away from somewhere." Harry heard Darrian say before a slight popping sound announced that he'd left. Tonks knew where she was going so Harry just concentrated and headed there himself.

Harry, who now felt a lot better about apparating announced his presence in the house with the usual slight rumbling. Darrian was already there, waiting for him. Tonks didn't show up right away and Harry recalled that she'd never actually been inside the house so she had no place to apparate to except outside.

When a knock sounded Harry knew it was her and headed for the door. "I'll get it," Darrian told him. Harry nodded and waited.

A room door opened and Harry turned to find himself in front of Korina in a towel. He stood there for a second, not sure what to say.

•


	9. Surprises

Chapter 09

• Surprises •

The situation fell apart.

First Korina dropped her towel. She seemed shocked that Harry was standing in front of her. At the same instant she pushed away from Harry, screaming.

Harry stood, gawking, completely unsure how to react. The last time he'd seen her was when he'd woken up in her bed after a night of events that he couldn't remember. Now, she was staring into his face and… screaming?

Darrian, who'd only begun to open the door, stumbled backwards as Tonks rushed in, wand held high. Darrian had no where to go but down. He was pretty surprised when he heard Korina scream and he was quickly knocked off balance.

Tonks continued pushing herself forcefully in through the door. Between the Auror training she'd received and her reckless sense of protection she could do nothing else. Though, with Darrian stumbling in front of her, there was little place to go except over him.

And over him she went.

Having rushed in with such force, there was no way Tonks could stop herself. Her sense of balance was lost almost instantly and she flailed, trying to regain the stability she'd lost.

Harry was still staring at Korina, mouth agape, not quite sure what to do. He was completely oblivious to whatever it was that was going on around him. The problem was that, even though he'd probably seen her with nothing on, he didn't remember it. When he'd woken up she'd been partly covered by the sheet.

After tripping over Darrian, Tonks continued forward, arms flailing and struck Harry in the back. Harry was knocked forward right on top of Korina as she stepped backwards another step.

As Harry to tried to regain his balance by reaching forward he had an epiphany. When Tonks had changed his face it had been more than just a little - he'd felt the change. Whatever she'd done to him must have made him grotesque. So, he thought grimly, Korina was staring at a complete stranger, probably monstrous looking as well.

As Harry tried to regain his balance he had an epiphany: when Tonks had changed his face it had been more than just a little. He felt the change. Whatever she did to him must make him grotesque. Korina was staring at a complete stranger, probably monstrous looking as well.

There wasn't anything he could do about it now.

A few minutes later, when everything had calmed down, Harry could be seen sitting on the couch, eyes on the floor and feeling like a fool. Tonks had removed the spell that had changed his face and the rest of him too, so he was himself in front of all of them.

A few minutes later everything had calmed down. Harry was sitting on the couch, eyes on the floor. He felt like a fool. Tonks had removed the spell that changed his face and the rest of them too, so he was Harry Potter in front of all of them.

"Now I can at least put aside the thought that Harry Potter's a womanizer," Darrian laughed, trying to make everyone feel comfortable. "After the way you and Seona were at each other… and with what you did with Kor the other night, well I figured I still had a ways to go."

"The other night?" Tonks asked. Intrigued about what had happened.

Feeling the weight shift away as Tonks moved, Harry dared to look up at Korina. Tonks didn't know about the other night and he was pretty sure he didn't want her to know. For one, he might be on her bad side again and he did not like it when she was serious with him. For another, he felt strange about her knowing. Something Harry didn't understand inside him told him not to tell her.

The glance was not what he expected. Korina was also embarrassed at the comment and looked down at the floor. Harry couldn't look for long though. Almost immediately his mind pictured her naked. The picture was so deeply engraved in his mind that Harry could not see anything else when he looked at her.

No one said anything at first. Riana was sitting on the couch, arms folded in front of her and acting slightly grumpy. Tonks was sitting next to her, looking slightly uncomfortable. She knew she screwed up yet again and she felt really bad about it.

On the other side of Riana sat Korina, still staring at the floor, hair covering the smile on her face. No one had known it before except her. She knew it was Harry since he first met Darrian at their house. After the club she'd been quite aware of exactly what she was doing when she took Harry home. Some peopled that didn't understand her occasionally referred to her cold, she wasn't. Korina was only waiting for someone she wanted to be with. Harry was definitely one of those people.

One thing Korina was unsure about was Tonks. Korina had watched her with Harry at the beach before they came over. She certainly hadn't acted like a bodyguard; she acted like his girlfriend, even with the considerable age difference. Harry hadn't seemed shy either, not like today. He was quite forward, and Korina liked forward men even if they were only good for a few things.

Darrian was amused with the whole thing; he might've laughed louder if he hadn't got an hard look from Tonks. She still looked like Seona, and he didn't know she was any different. The crush was not diminished because of the way she was acting around Harry - in fact the feeling was even stronger than before. If Harry could have her, he should be able to compete for her. Losing one thing was enough.

"It's amazing," Riana said smugly, "that someone so popular doesn't know what to do with a naked woman in his arms."

Darrian laughed at the comment. "You know, he seemed to know what to do with one other night. I never heard Kor complaining at all. Seems to me you like him Ri."

There were a lot of things being said and Harry didn't know how to respond to them. Tonks wasn't an idiot and she probably had a pretty good idea what had happened already. Now he would have to explain it to her.

"It's not what you think." Korina said quietly. "What we did is private. Would you please not talk about it like that?"

Riana snorted. "Private, my ass! It was pretty damn obvious what was going on."

"You're just jealous that Kor got laid by a guy you wanted," Darrian said, sniggering.

A new voice spoke, "Quiet, both of you!" it snapped.

The whole room turned to the voice as it continued. "Darrian, you shouldn't treat Ri like that and Ri, I'm surprised at you. You know you shouldn't be talking like that at all. I expect you to act better when you're in my home, especially around guests."

"I'm Katrina," the woman said, eyeing Riana still, "Riana's Aunt. It seems you've met everyone else. Let me apologize for the behavior of these two," she said as she spoke directly to Harry, glancing between Riana and Darrian as she did. "They really should know better," she paused looking over to Tonks but her eyes returned to Harry. "You, I assume - unless Darrian's just making up another story - are Harry Potter."

Harry nodded politely. He didn't know if it was best to stay quiet or not, after all they were discussing him.

"And you," Katrina's eyes turned back to Tonks, "I know. Haven't seen you in a long time though,"

Enough was enough. Harry had to stop things before the progressed to much further. It didn't matter if this Katrina woman knew Tonks. He needed to speak with her alone for at least a minute or two.

"I… think… maybe… Tonks, can I talk to you for a second?" Harry asked.

Tonks nodded and stood, walking towards the end of the hall with Harry following. Behind him he could hear the others talking with each other about Tonks. Darrian still didn't know who Tonks was or why Harry was calling her by that name. Riana was watching Tonks suspiciously and Korina was still grinning unseen.

"Look," Harry said. He was still slightly defensive even though Tonks hadn't said anything. "The other night, when I came home in the morning… well, I didn't exactly tell you everything that happened. I'm not sure exactly what happened. At the club I acted a little out of character, I remember some of it. Afterwards, well, I'm not sure what happened."

Harry looked up to her, waiting for her to ask him to continue or to get angry, to do something. Nothing happened however, so he decided to continue.

"Well, see, I think Darrian asked me to stay, like I said, but I thought I said no. The next thing I remembered was I woke up next to Korina, naked. Really, I have no idea how I got there. I came home right away though," claimed Harry.

"So you left her in the middle of the night after a quick shag?" Tonks asked, smiling.

Somehow Harry didn't think that was what her reaction would be and he stared at her in surprise. "I told you, I don't remember."

"Sure sounds like every else knows what happened. Harry, you're a big boy, and popping your cherry isn't something that you need to sort out with me. So why don't we just get back into the room so you can get your prize?" she said, shaking her head with a smile.

It was still a surprise to him that Tonks didn't mind, so he followed her lead, mutedly.

"That's Tonks?" Riana demanded as Harry stepped back into the room. "I thought she was the old woman on the beach."

"Old?" Tonks snapped. Harry didn't think Riana had used the words on purpose, but she'd said it.

For about three seconds nothing happened, it was as if the whole room paused when Tonks had retorted. Harry watched Tonks's hair grow longer and change to a dark crimson color. Not one of her usual colors, but quite unusual still.

"But…" Darrian stuttered as he stared at her. "You're Seona, how did you… I mean… you can't be the…"

"One and the same," Katrina said from the couch. "It's been a while, Nymphadora."

Though Tonks was in front of him, Harry was sure that her face turned red. It was odd that she knew Riana's aunt. Harry didn't want to interfere this time though; it wasn't for him to ask right now. Maybe when they were alone later, Harry thought. When Harry's eyes started to drift across the room he saw Korina again and glanced away as the naked image of her returned.

"You're a morpher?" Riana asked stunned. Had Harry been watching he would have seen Korina's face turn to one of complete surprise. She covered it up rather quickly though, and no one noticed.

"A metamorphmagus?" Korina asked, her voice not betraying her surprise.

"Yeah," Tonks said, shocked. "Most people don't know what they're called, I'm surprised."

Korina smiled, "I've studied a bit about a lot, gives me an advantage sometimes. I haven't really decided on a career yet, but I've been looking. There's a few I've considered, but that doesn't matter for now. I'm surprised that Harry knows such a person, you're pretty rare."

"Yep," Tonks said and stepped forward. Her foot caught the corner of the table and she fell forward.

Reacting without thinking, Harry took a quick step forward and wrapped his hands around her waist to keep her from falling. Tonks laughed lightly and Harry found himself in another awkward position.

Quickly Harry withdrew his hands and put them to his side. The whole room seemed tense again.

"Alright, it's time I suppose," Darrian said reluctantly, breaking the tension in the room. Taking a few steps to the side he got a good running start and swung up into the hole. "Come on Sly, time to go and get your egg."

"Egg?" Harry looked towards Darrian, surprised. The prize for winning still hadn't been explained to him. And he didn't know what Signat 392 type: 7.3 - Bambi was. It seemed to be some sort of creature. "It's not a dragon, is it?" he asked quickly, not wanting to have to deal with one. He'd had enough of dragons between Hagrid and the Tri Wizard tournament. Dragon eggs were rare and expensive and it seemed like something Darrian would swindle off someone.

"Sly?" Katrina spoke up again.

"Yeah," Darrian laughed. "He pulled the wool over my eyes and beat me at Jack."

"Good. It's about time someone beat you. You know how much I disapprove of you playing that game."

Taking a step forward and grabbing the bars with both hands Darrian swung up into his room. "Yeah, yeah, I know," he said as he disappeared through the trapdoor.

Uncertain what to do, Harry stared at the bars. The way Darrian had talked it was as if he wanted Harry to follow him, but he wasn't sure if he could do the same thing Darrian did.

Finally he took a few steps back and took a running start to get enough momentum to swing himself up into the hole. He'd done things more stupid in his life. When he jumped he was barely able to get his fingers around the bar, but in the end he did. As his body started to swing he tucked his legs in as Darrian had done. Harry considered the possibility he might actually make it through. However, things didn't go well after that. As Harry's body was almost straightened out directly beneath the hole, something heavy dropped onto his stomach. Almost instantly, Harry lost all of his momentum along with his grip and dropped like a rock.

Lying on the ground with his head throbbing, Harry saw Darrian's face appear above him, surprised. "Sorry, didn't know you were gonna try that. Most people use the ladder."

In the upper regions of his vision Harry could see the ladder dangling almost to the ground. It had been the heavy object, which struck him.

Painfully Harry forced himself to stand up. He grabbed a rung of the ladder and slowly made his way up.

"Welcome," Darrian said, with an overzealous wave of his hands, "to my domain."

It was a completely different world it seemed. The only light in the room came from candles that appeared to be everywhere. Behind each of them seemed to be a poster of something. The people in the posters looked unusually ominous in the candlelight. None of them were moving though, save one, who was at the far end of the room. His green eyes glinted from the soft lighting and his hair dripped from his head.

"That's me," Harry said, astonished. He recognized where the picture was from, but he didn't know anyone had taken it. It was right after the second task. He'd been alone for a few seconds right as they announced the points. He was standing in the poster, wrapped in a blanket and smiling as if he'd just won the tournament.

There was another picture of him, a younger Harry, standing with Hedwig ready to set her loose. It was snowing and until Hedwig shook he didn't even see her. "And another," Harry said, overwhelmed. When it looked over to him, finally moving, it smiled happily. He wasn't sure how anyone had gotten that picture. He rarely went out in the storms like that, and no one else was around when he did.

They didn't know the truth. Everything had been good when those pictures were taken. They were before Voldemort had risen; before people had died; before Sirius was gone. Harry cringed, hating to think about Sirius.

"Yeah," Darrian said. "I couldn't get a signed copy, they don't exist. Seems you don't like signing much. There are a few things out there, but you can't come by them easily."

Harry frowned and looked away. He'd come here so he wouldn't be recognized and somehow he'd failed miserably. "Alright, I can sign something for you," he said quietly, getting the point. "What do you want signed?"

"This," Darrian said, tossing the same snitch Harry had handled the other day. "It's a one of a kind as it is."

Grabbing the snitch from the air, Harry looked at it and sighed as Darrian handed Harry a quill. "It's specialized for magical signing."

Nodding, Harry took it and carefully signed his name on its surface, then handed it back to Darrian.

"Alright, good, now for the egg," Darrian said, moving away from the pictures of Harry where the snitch was. Harry could barely see what was there, but as his eyes adjusted he tried to look away. Between the books, the posters, and other various mementos, there was almost a whole wall of things about him.

Harry spun, following Darrian whilst glancing at the rest of the room – it was just shelves and posters, all of it seemed to be slightly different in feeling. On the wall, mounted not far from his posters, were three broomsticks. Harry took a step towards them. "Wow," he gasped. "A Comet Fire, I thought they'd only made ten of those."

"Twelve. Two were destroyed in the fire that ruined the factory. That's the third one that was produced. Francisco Vallens even signed it sort of. He whittled his name into it while he was stuck in the fireproof room while the rest of the factory burned," Darrian said happily. It was one of his top prizes.

It was hard for Harry to believe what else was in the room. Dumbledore's own collection was dwarfed by what filled the shelves here. He noticed a pensive near the brooms beside an open Quidditch box, and wondered what it contained. "Wouldn't go in it," Darrian said, following his gaze and shuddering. "I wish I knew how to clear out the damned thing. It's like a nightmare in there."

"So let's get to it then," Darrian requested, moving again in the darkness. Harry had a hard time following him. "You do understand that this is not something I'm just going to hand over. You have to make another oath with me that you'll take good care of her." he said, slowing as he neared the far wall.

"First, you have to be there when she's born. Seems she'll have a sort of parental attachment to the first person she sees. You've got to be that person. Also, I've gotta have reports about her. Every week, how she's doing and some things that are already on one of the scrolls I'll give you. I swore I'd keep her updated on how Bambi's doing."

Harry just nodded his head and wondered what this Bambi thing was.

"Alright this is everything about her," Darrian said as he dropped a thick stack of parchments and scrolls into Harry's hands. "She's named Bambi," he finished as he walked over to where he had stood a moment before, reaching down to unsnap the latches on a wooden chest.

"Touch on it, you have to swear you'll do everything you can for her."

A hesitant feeling filled Harry. He didn't even know what 'she' was. Before he could respond, Darrian had already grabbed his hand and touched his fingers. Harry reluctantly agreed to accept the honor (if it could be called that). "Take her then, put her in a cool place. If it's too warm she'll never hatch."

"What is she?" Harry demanded, tired of hearing everything he had to do to keep the animal alive. He was beginning to think that maybe this thing was something he didn't want to take on.

There was a pause and Darrian looked slightly confused. "Well," he said quietly. "It's not really anything. It's part dog, part Thestral, and…" Harry shuddered at the mention of Thestrals. He had enough experience with them; they didn't frighten him, but they did make him wary. "...Dragon. Don't worry," he added quickly when he saw the look on Harry's face. "She assured me that it wouldn't get big and wouldn't breathe fire. She said that she'd been completely unsuccessful in that, something to do with the cranial cavities not being the right shape."

"Who's she?"

"Adrianna Trueblood. She works at one of the Zoo's back home. She's a Breeding Maven and a good one at that. It took me a long while to make her lose everything she did. I had to spend weeks working her before I got Bambi. She had a lot of other things of course… but Bambi, well she's special. The only one that's going to live for longer than two weeks, I think." Darrian said. "That's part of the reason that Adrianna let it happen. She can only study them for two weeks before she's got to destroy them. Part of the rules she's gotta follow at the place she works."

Harry just shook his head. He didn't quite understand what Darrian was saying.

"Well you see," Darrian started again. "She breeds animals together for special purposes. All she's allowed to do is breed and study them when they're young. Bambi, well she's special. I'm not sure how she covered it up, but she did. Seems that she'd just tell 'em the egg never matured or something. She can't take 'em away herself because they're watching her. So, I don't think she minded letting me have one in the end, it just took a lot of convincing."

Slowly Darrian lifted the lid on the chest. It was dark, but Harry could make out a medium sized egg in the center. "That's Bambi," he said quietly. "She's yours now, and you'd better take good care of her or I'll hunt you down."

"You can take the chest with you. It shrinks so it'll fit in your pocket. But don't keep it shrunk for too long. It's not good for the egg.

"Umm, Harry!" Tonks voice rose into Darrian's room. Harry pocketed the chest that Darrian had given him and moved towards the opening in the floor. He dropped his head through and looked at her. "What's up?"

"Yeah, well…" Tonks scratched her head. "I think it's time to leave. Now," she said with a hint of extreme urgency and glanced out the window.

"You know how to get to the hotel, right?" she asked quickly.

Harry nodded.

"Go. Now! I'll meet you there in a few minutes."

There was a knock on the door and Harry looked up surprised. When he looked back to Tonks, her face was veiled in fear. "Now!" she whispered fiercely to him.

Nodding, Harry concentrated enough to make the hole and dropped through it, headed directly towards his hotel. He figured whatever it was Tonks was afraid of meant they would be leaving quickly. Keeping a careful eye on the outside of the hotel, he proceeded to pack everything he picked up over the few weeks he had been on the island.

When he was finished, Harry sat in the corner of his room with his now shrunken luggage in a pocket. In his right hand he held the wand he'd been using for the last several weeks. His own wand was concealed up his sleeve, just as Tonks had taught him. He didn't know how long Tonks wanted to wait, but after a few hours of doing nothing, Harry began to get nervous.

What he was sure about was that Tonks had been afraid. Almost as afraid as when the Death Eaters had come for him. Now she had gone missing. To top it off she'd told him to wait for her. Surely there was a time limit. Another hour dragged by and Harry's eyes began to droop even with the threat of someone coming after him. He stood and walked around for a short while, getting his blood pumping. However, the moment he sat down, his eyes began to drop again.

It took a while, but Harry soon nodded off. For the first time in several months Harry began to have visions again. It was more than just a dream. Try as he might, he had no way to keep it from happening. It started unlike any he'd ever had before. It was nice. He was standing in a meadow somewhere in the mountains, white and pink flowers all around him. Someone approached in the far off distance, a mere dark shadow for a while. When the person finally started to take shape the ground under Harry began to slide away, moving the man away slowly at first, but quicker and quicker until he'd was lost in the far off landscape.

Harry didn't understand it at all, but he didn't want to go towards the man. He'd been tricked once before, and wouldn't let it happen again. In the next instant Harry found himself in a familiar room, something that began to overwhelm his thoughts. Sirius was standing on the far side of it, grinning down at him.

"Wake up you git, you're about to get the both of us caught," he said in a strange voice. Harry shook his head, not understanding what he was saying.

"GET UP!" he shouted, but in Tonks's voice.

A harsh chill made Harry sit up quickly, not quite sure what was happening. Someone had their hands on his, and he yanked it away, going for his hidden wand.

"Don't!" Tonks shouted at him.

It took Harry a minute, but everything cleared up. Tonks was tugging on him, trying to get him to wake up. "Hurry up!" she said, shaking him again. "We really don't have much time. Never mind, just don't let go. You're not going to like this," she finally muttered.

A hard gut-wrenching feeling passed over him as Tonks grabbed a hold of a Portkey.

"Stupid Aurors," Tonks muttered again as she stood up and brushed herself off. "Do you know how much trouble I'm in?" she groaned looking over to Harry.

Being completely in the dark about what was happening Harry shook his head, uttering a soft 'no'.

"Well, seems that the Minister's ordered you brought in and made an allowance for excessive force. Every Auror available is scouring all of England for you, and now they know we were on Icaria. Somewhere between my magical usage and a picture of you got them all the way to Darrian's house. I'm sorry about sending you off like that; I didn't know if you'd even make it; must have been able to get away just before they erected the apparating barrier. I would've got to the hotel sooner but I had to play it safe. Didn't work anyway, I never even saw them following me."

"Why are you in trouble then? And why is it so important to bring me in?" Harry asked. He didn't understand what Tonks meant.

A wind blew by and Harry shivered. He hadn't worn much on the island because it was warm. Here it was quite chilly. "Never mind that, where are we?"

"Just wait a minute, let me get my bearings. I think my Portkey didn't quite take us to where it was suppose to," she said as she looked around. When Harry looked at her with disbelief she raised her hands defensively. "I'm sorry. It was the first Portkey I've ever made. I'm surprised I even made it to London."

Harry looked around and laughed nervously. Whatever area of London they were in was far worse than Grimmauld Place. "Alright," Tonks said. "We're going this way," pointing down a street. She began at a fast lope down the street. "We need to get away from here as fast as possible. That Portkey was illegal, it'll take them a while, but they'll figure out it was to here."

"Where are we going then?"

Tonks looked around once more and changed streets, heading down an even darker one. "It's a safe house, well as safe as we can be for a while."

After three more dark roads the atmosphere suddenly changed. They were in a nicer area of London. "Alright," Tonks said finally, "I know where we are now, it's just this way."

Harry followed. He learned from being with Tonks that it was best to do what she said and not question her unless things started to go wrong.

They came to the building Tonks was looking for. Tonks concentrated for a minute, her face changing slightly. "Can I help you miss?" a doorman asked as they walked inside. When he saw Tonks, he smiled. "Ah, 703 then?" he asked, not bothering to look at Harry.

Tonks nodded. Harry felt slightly out of place in his wizarding robes, but besides a few people on the road, no one had commented at all. The lift took them to the seventh floor and Harry kept both wands up his sleeves, ready to use. It wasn't that he didn't trust Tonks; he wanted to be ready just in case.

At the door marked 703, Tonks knocked twice and waited.

Behind the door Harry could hear a muffled noise. One of the concealed wands slipped down into his hand.

The door cracked open slightly. Harry could see a brown eye taking them in. It slammed shut a second later as a commotion broke out. Tonks had grabbed a hold of the handle before it closed completely and she threw herself against the door, swinging it open again.

"Howdy boys!" she said, not bothering to be quiet about it.

•


	10. The Scoop

Chapter 10

• The Scoop •

On the other side of the door the two Weasley Twins stood, gaping. When Harry followed Tonks in and shut the door the twins jumped at him, almost killing him with fright.

"HARRY!" both shouted at the same time. "We'd wondered where you'd run off to, they've got everyone looking for you."

After Harry had the freedom to move again he grinned back at them and turned to Tonks, half laughing. "You call this place _safe_?" he asked jokingly and getting a frightening look from the twins, one he didn't want to explore.

"Safe enough for now," she said looking to the twins. "You're not going to be telling anyone, are you? Not even your brother or mum."

Shrugging, the two headed towards a table. "Fine with us," Fred replied. "Mum wouldn't allow anyone to come over here anyway, and she certainly isn't coming herself. She's almost locked everyone in that house in fright. Dad apparates straight to and from the ministry and he takes Bill with him when they go to get groceries."

"How'd you know where we lived anyway?" Fred asked.

Tonks looked towards George and smiled. "You brother here tried to pick me up one night at the l'etape . He thought I was drunk and brought me back here."

"You were drunk," George said as Fred looked at him in disbelief.

"No," Tonks said, trying to defend herself. "I was mildly intoxicated."

"So drunk that you couldn't make it through the door without my help," George said. "I brought you here because I didn't know where you lived and you couldn't actually remember at the time."

Tonks smiled sweetly. "So anyway, he makes a move on me while we were sitting on the couch and got deprived of the privilege of being in my company for the night. I went home after that."

George, who didn't look as if he was enjoying the way Tonks was talking about him, snorted. "You passed out on the couch for four hours and _then_ you went home."

"Close enough," Tonks snapped back.

"But," Fred said, still gaping. "How come _I_ didn't know? I mean, I've been here most nights."

"You were with Elizabeth," George said, sarcastically. "You didn't come home until the next day."

Harry just shook his head about the whole thing. He wondered if Tonks got drunk often, it'd be a sight to see if she acted any crazier than she normally did. When it occurred to Harry why Tonks might've been getting drunk he tried to stop thinking about it, and decided that for the time being he probably didn't want to see Tonks drunk.

"There's a problem with staying here," Fred said, looking between Harry and Tonks. "Maybe," he added slyly.

This being the best place she could find, Tonks raised an eyebrow. "And what is it?"

"Well," George smiled. "See we have another room just in there," he said pointing, "but we've only got one extra bed. You're both going to have to sleep on it. There's no magic allowed in downtown London, even behind the confines of doors."

"That's a problem?" Tonks scoffed.

It was for Harry. He'd never slept in a bed with a female (other than Korina, and he couldn't remember that). Basically, he was afraid what that meant when he woke up. His face started to turn bright red as he thought about it. Fred was laughing before Harry even looked up.

"It is for Harry," George chuckled when he saw Harry's face. "He's never been with a girl before."

Tonks snorted. "Well, you two are certainly out of the loop. Harry got some last week." Then, without loosing a beat she turned to Harry. "You're not sleeping on the floor. Don't worry about it, you'll get used to it, and besides, it won't be for long. We're only staying until I get everything sorted out."

"Now," she said, turning back to the door. "I have to leave for an hour or so, gotta get some things taken care of as soon as possible. You two can take care of Harry, can't you?" Tonks asked, staring at the twins.

"Take care of him!" Both exclaimed. George rubbed his hands together, but Fred continued speaking. "We can do better than that. We're going to have a man-to-man talk while you're gone. Brief Harry on some of the things he doesn't know about yet."

The door closed even before Harry heard Tonks's quiet goodbye and he turned to the twins apprehensively.

"This is a delicate point in your life," Fred chortled.

"Yeah," George added. "It's about the age you start thinking about what's between a woman's legs."

Both laughed hard.

Even as deprived as he was, Harry had a general understanding of the 'birds and the bee's' but it was only from what he'd discovered while hearing older boys' conversations.

"Let's start at the beginning Harry," George said, trying to contain his laughter - unlike Fred who was laughing so hard that tears were rolling from his eyes.

"As you grow older, Harry, changes happen. But you started, even before you can remember, as a tadpole." Fred fell to his knees, his face so red that Harry thought he might be choking.

"Now women have these rivers built into them that once, a long time ago you swam through to find an egg and become good friends with it. That's when you were born."

"Now, that tadpole's the key you see. There's lots of little ones in you and when you _quote_ do the wild monkey dance _unquote,_ with a woman you're releasing millions of those tadpoles to swim upriver and make babies," George said, while next to him Fred was beside himself with laughter.

"That's a bad thing," Fred finally was able to breathe between fits of laughter.

"Well, in some ways. You don't want a little Harry running around, do you? No, you need to take some special potions so that your tadpoles die off before they make it upstream."

Finally having recovered from his laughing fit, Fred stood upright. "Never mind what George said. It's simple, you put your tool in a woman too much and she's gonna have a baby unless you take potions. There's other things that are involved, but George just tries to dumb it down. You're not dumb, are you Harry? No, I thought not. Now, we've got a potion that you probably need to learn to make. It'll keep your…" he looked over to George and snorted, but was able to contain himself, "… tadpoles from swimming upstream. It's always best that the woman's taking something as well because the potions are not foolproof."

"Yeah, look at mum," George snorted this time.

Once again Fred was howling with laughter, unable to control himself. "Yeah, mum took them since she was young," he said between breaths. "Never helped her much," he continued, his laughter fading.

Harry didn't really think it was funny, but the twins couldn't stop laughing for several minutes. When they did it was Fred who began. "So who is this girl? Someone we know?"

The best Harry could do was shake his head. He was tired, he'd been put through a lot and now that the sleep he'd gotten before had worn off he was feeling the need to get some rest.

"What was her name?" George asked.

"Erm…" Harry began, not quite sure if he wanted to answer.

The twins exchanged glances and then looked at Harry, grinning. "You don't even know!" they said in unison. Their eyes turned to each other again and both shook their heads.

"Next time, get her name," Fred said.

"Well?" George asked, "how was it?"

"This is like Ron's first time," Fred squealed girlishly as they waited for Harry's response. "Our babies are growing up," he continued faking a sniffle and wiping away a non existent tear.

"That… well… I don't exactly… see, I wasn't exactly very aware that night. I went into a club and had a few drinks, then I woke up next to her, don't remember much between then."

The jeering and sniffles disappeared and Harry could see that the twins were completely taken by surprise. Harry scratched his head nervously, feeling the weight of their stares bearing down on him.

"You're not _serious_?" Fred said, looking at Harry as if it might be a joke. "Your first time… and you don't even remember it? We should get you some sort of memory potion, you can't just not remember your first time, that's like sacrilege or something."

"No, no," Harry said, waving his hands in front of him. "It's alright, I don't think I want to remember it. I have enough memories as it is."

"Oh?" George piped up. "Something else we should hear about? Like maybe why you and Tonks disappeared in the first place? Or where you were? Where you got that scar on your neck? And for that matter, what happened with your scar?"

Surprised, Harry's hand shot to his head, touching the scar that should've been there - nothing was. It didn't seem to have come back yet, but even as Harry hand's began to pull away he felt the burning of it returning. The spell seemed to have worn off.

"Sorry, we had to hide my identity. Tonks said that it was best that way. As for everything else it can wait until tomorrow at least, I need to get to bed." Harry said, exaggerating the yawn that overtook him.

"Yeah alright," Fred said. "Just one more question. What's with you and Tonks? Not getting too friendly with her are you?"

The retreat Harry was executing stopped mid step. "Huh?" he asked, not sure if he was taking the implied meaning correctly.

"Oh come on," George said. "We both saw the way she looked happier when you were told you were sleeping with her. She stared at you a few seconds before she left too, you have to tell us what's going on. It wasn't her was it? I mean, you said you didn't even know her."

_Her?_

"No!" Harry retorted as soon as he understood what George was asking. "it wasn't her, I met up with some people I'd met earlier in the day, people Tonks didn't know. And then, when I came back late she was cross with me for another two days. Wouldn't even speak to me. Now I'm going to bed."

Twenty minutes later, Harry was having a hard time falling asleep. The words that had been said only a few minutes before he had made his way to the bedroom were troubling him. Why would Tonks be looking at him strangely? Maybe she was leaving and not coming back? Or maybe she was wondering about something. They could be right, but he didn't understand why Tonks would like him.

Sleep overcame him, but not for long.

It was odd waking in a new place, he'd only just come to terms with waking at the island and it was becoming more familiar to him. However, when he woke up in an unknown bed he was more than a little surprised. It took him a few moments to remember where exactly he was.

The blankets were wrapped around him tightly, but he could feel the prickling cold of the room and recalled that the island was a great deal warmer than London. He felt more boxed in than he had in a long time, almost as if he were back in his little cupboard under the stairs. It hadn't bothered him then, but at the time he'd never known anything different. Now, he could hardly stand the feeling and he tried to roll out of bed to walk around.

The blanket did not let him go and he fought against harder it. Then, surprisingly, it moved. An unnerving chill flowed up his spine as a sense of déjà vu set in. He recalled waking up next to Korina and how she'd been close to him, not as close as this person was, but he knew it was someone.

"Tonks?" he whispered in a hoarse voice, recalling that she would be sleeping in the same bed as him.

As if responding to her name, Tonks adjusted herself in bed, tightening her grip as she did so. Harry was at a loss, he didn't want Tonks to wake up while he was awake, he'd feel extremely uncomfortable, even more than he was right now.

Then Tonks moved again, rolling a good portion of her body onto Harry. Not sure how to respond Harry felt weak inside, like when all the blood rushed away from his head while diving abruptly on a broom.

Another handful of minutes passed and Harry began to gently push on Tonks, trying to get her to move so that he'd have enough space on the bed. The glowing numbers on the clock said that only a few hours had past since he'd first gone to bed, and Harry didn't really want to get up, so after prodding her several times and getting no response Harry relinquished and tried to sleep.

•

"No, seriously Harry," Fred said, his mouth full of food. "You're welcome anytime. We haven't eaten this good since we were home last."

A few days had passed since Harry and Tonks had first come to 'The Hole' as the twins called it. Harry'd gotten used to the setting and even more used to being stuck inside. The rain outside was absolutely bizarre, pouring and hailing one minute and then nothing only seconds later.

The muggle newspapers kept blaming the fluctuations in weather to a storm called El Niño but at the same time said it was acting unusual. As for the Daily Prophet Harry had still not seen more than a couple of issues of it. The twins kept telling him that they only got it at the store when they remembered. Harry, however, could have sworn he'd seen an owl bring it once or twice.

During the day Tonks would slip away, keeping up appearances in her job. Harry found out that the whole time they were on the island no one, not even Dumbledore, had known where they were. Tonks suspected that someone was leaking information from inside and had somehow overcome the barriers that would've protected the order against such a person.

Being the halfwit he was, when Tonks had disappeared with Harry, Fudge had assumed that Tonks was working with Voldemort and put out an edict for her capture. Harry being watched had officially been Fudge's idea and so he was not about to let himself get caught up with getting in trouble for Harry's disappearance. Tonks had been labeled as a rouge by the papers, and though it never mentioned anything about her metamorph abilities, anyone seeing her was to try and capture her or report directly to the ministry.

The first night they'd come Tonks had gone directly to Dumbledore, explaining everything she'd done and her suspicions. Apparently there had been a mutual thought between them and he told her to keep track of him, without allowing anyone to know where he was. Dumbledore covered for her disappearance and a note was put in the paper recalling the order that had been given for Tonks's capture.

Not having read the paper Harry was going by the things Tonks told him at night. He was still officially missing, but Dumbledore had told Fudge that Harry was safe for the time being and would not need to be rescued. Fudge had been furious that Dumbledore was circumventing the ministry, but let things go.

Harry also finally began receiving letters from Ron and Hermione, several the first time. Dumbledore had been storing them from when Harry disappeared. Tonks had performed some sort of concealment charm to keep anyone from being able to locate him via magical post methods.

Hermione had wrote several letters at first, each very similar, most with a great deal of horror at what had happened at Harry's house (it seemed she hadn't been told until after he'd disappeared from the Orders Headquarters). After that they were short notes asking why he wasn't responding. Harry had just read through them quickly, trying to retain the major points and then replied, telling her he could get the messages now. Dumbledore would still receive them and then send them through Tonks.

Hedwig returned to him as well, apparently she'd been spending most of her time with Hermione because she could not find Harry. When Hermione wrote again it was about everything, the letters that had been so reserved last year seemed to brim with information.

Umbridge was her favorite topic. Fudge had done the best he could to cover up everything that had happened but a few reporters had gotten the inside scoop and turned it into a nightmare for him. The first story was however the best it seemed. Hermione had clipped it for him from the Quibbler and sent him a copy.

**Terror at Hogwarts.**

_Is Fudge in cahoots with Voldemort?_

_During the last year at Hogwarts, as many of you already know, a High Inquisitor was appointed to oversee the education of students at Hogwarts. She failed tremendously. During her tyrannical stay she gained complete control over the school and proved what an 'iron fist' really is._

_There is however another topic that should be discussed seeing the terrible misfortune which has befallen Hogwarts. Her methods can relate to that of when the Death Eaters ruled but fifteen years ago. At first there was the topic of Ms. Umbridge's treatment of 'half-breeds' as she calls them._

_Though few have come forward about this topic I have a source (who would like to remain anonymous) that can site many occasions of her misuse of power to get rid of or tear down any witches or wizards who were not pure bloods. Students, staff and even visitors were all treated with the amount of respect that one might give to a wizard imprisoned in Azkaban prison._

_Though it was harsh, her tyranny was not brought upon those who were not purebloods alone. She took it upon herself to bring back punishments from the middle ages, things that most wizards hate to look back upon. I have it from several different accounts the cruel and brutal treatment that many students went through. One such recount was of having to write several thousand lines with a Bleeding Quill (see section 3b) to 'make an impression'. He provided proof by undergoing an examination by a trained physician - there was still evidence of scarring in his hand._

_Harry Potter had many such sessions with the woman and never once complained. Can we wonder what she did to him? Several students have pointed out his very apparent dislike for the woman and the way he continually fought to bring the truth of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Known out. He was banned from Quidditch, and sent to detention over and over again because of his convictions. Who reading this could say that they would truly fight for such a truth when so few believed them?_

_Now, given such examples of behavior that can only be related to that of a Death Eater, we ask ourselves is there a connection? Could it be that Umbridge was working in secret to help bring about Voldemorts resurrection? She organized a squad of students who worked directly through her to maintain discipline throughout the school. All of these students were of pure blood and - according to some - fiercely loyal to her. Lead by Draco Malfoy, son of Lucius Malfoy, the now infamous Death Eater. Could this group be some sort of splinter of the Death Eaters to recruit while still in school?_

_At the time of this writing Umbridge could not be contacted for questioning. In fact, no one has seen any sign of her since the night she disappeared from Hogwarts._

_We all know that Fudge made it well known last year that Umbridge was working directly with him on everything and he backed up everything that she wanted to do, including the dismissal of at least one teacher for incompetence. A few of her students wrote to the newspaper about the unfair treatment the teacher suffered through._

_Piecing the puzzle together requires a great deal of skill but it seems right now that Fudge is responsible for the acts that happened at Hogwarts, the acts that are very similar to the methods that have previously been used by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Known. There is other evidence as well, including the numerous press 'meetings' last year in which Fudge denied that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Known had returned even after having all the evidence he did._

_Can we trust Fudge to make decisions for us if he seems to be protecting the Dark Lord? This topic is being put under serious investigation, see future issues to find out any information we have of the inquiry. But for now watch out, terror is abundant in these dark days._

Harry might've cried with happiness had the twins not been around. Such an article was something he'd waited for since he'd first had to write lines for the woman. Hermione also told him about the articles that followed, how all of the decree's that had been put into effect were now removed and that Hogwarts was now under Dumbledore's control again. There was also a law in the works too keep similar things from happening again.

More notes came, not just from Hermione, but from Ron also. He thought it was brilliant that Harry'd burned down the muggle house he'd lived in and that he'd finally run away.

He also mentioned a girl he was seeing, they'd been caught down at the village together in one of the storms that neither dared to leave in and had talked a good bit. She wasn't a witch, but that certainly didn't stop Ron. Harry smiled when he read about her, Ron could barely get past the part about her being extremely good looking. She was in her 6th year of schooling as well, going to the Chirmink Academy for Girls and wanted to be a teacher. That was about all of the normal information he got from the letters.

"So, Harry? Your birthday's coming soon, isn't it?" George said, knocking Harry out of his reverie.

Harry glanced up to see a glint in both boys' eyes and he shuddered to think what they had planned for him. Dumbledore had already told him it would be best if he didn't let his friends come over just in case they were tracked.

"Yeah," he said quietly. "I don't think it matters though. It isn't a big deal anyway."

"Alright," Fred said grinning and winking to George. "Oh, and hey we wanted to talk to you about a new prank George and I have been working out, want to hear it?"

Harry shook his head no, but too late. George was already deep into discussing how they were going to change the time in London.

•


	11. The Pensieve

Chapter 11

• The Pensieve •

Harry blinked furiously as he woke up startled.

It was dark around him, and he felt Tonks under his arm. He took a moment to breathe. Until now he had not had a single dream that might be related to what Voldemort was doing or seeing. But suddenly it had changed. Harry grimaced but did not move. He didn't want to wake Tonks.

There hadn't been much to the dream, a black doorway and a glowing symbol. But, as his scar prickled, Harry knew that it wasn't just a dream. He wished he'd seen more, found something he could use, but there was nothing. No faces, no animals, nothing but a dark door.

Finally deciding he wouldn't be able to sleep anymore that night, Harry carefully slipped his hand away from Tonks and rubbed his scar. He glanced over to Tonks as he pulled himself from the bed and saw she was sleeping soundly. Last night she'd come in late, even later than usual, and hadn't said a single word. It was better that way. Harry found it more comfortable if he didn't speak with her at night. Even though he'd gotten used to her presence he still was slightly uneasy about it.

Closing his eyes, Harry stretched and focused, trying to remember anything that might have helped him remember the dream. He thought to write to Dumbledore but decided against it as he continued to think about it in his mind. Dumbledore knew everything he thought cantankerously. Besides, it wasn't as if a dream of a black doorway was going to help him much.

Hedwig hooted in the corner, she had caught some small creature and was in the process of tearing it apart when Harry had woken up. "Hey girl," Harry whispered, "keep it quiet. Tonks is asleep."

Hedwig's huge eyes blinked once and then a second later she continued to rip apart the animal she'd caught. Harry sighed and looked at the time. Today was his birthday and he was up before 5 am. Naturally the damned dreams had started the day of his birthday. He sighed and rubbed his scar unconsciously again as the prickling faded, quicker than usual.

Another minute ticked by on the clock that sat in the corner of Harry's vision and he groaned audibly. It seemed as though he were sleeping less and less lately. The spells Tonks had done didn't seem to be helping much; it was possible that he was gaining some sort of immunity to it. After all, Tonks had been performing it since before the island.

As Harry washed his face and hair, he thought about the time he'd spent at the flat. Tonks was gone a good deal of the time working and so were the twins. That left him alone in the flat, with only his thoughts. The twins for some odd reason didn't want him to use magic. It wasn't all that hard for Harry even though he wanted to practice magic now that he'd started already during the summer. There was the curious reason that the twins didn't want magic in their house. They were wizards and had been all their lives. They had never _not_ known magic but now wanted to stay away from it altogether.

They had books though, and kept some of their notes about creating. Harry ran across these by accident the first time when he was cleaning the kitchen up. They seemed to have some extremely unique ideas and he was happy that their business was going to do so well.

Other than cleaning and reading Harry would practice the fundamentals of some of the spells and thought about how to teach them to the other members of the DA. The thought never even touched him that perhaps there wouldn't be a DA anymore now that Umbridge was gone. The only difference was that now they wouldn't have to be so secretive about things.

Somehow his thoughts always wandered by the end of the day and eventually coming to Sirius, Hermione or Ron. Somehow even when he thought about Sirius, he didn't even cry. He was angry with himself about it, but it was the oddest thing, every time he started getting sad he felt as if he were floating. The closest thing he could relate it to was the Imperius curse when the fake Moody had placed it on him.

He also tried to figure out everything that Tonks had once showed him. He wished he had a Pensieve so he could go over it easier. He was able to remember a good number of the things she showed him when they first started. Some of it he wrote down on several parchments that he tied together as a makeshift book. He wanted to remember exactly how she introduced it so when he showed the others he could do it properly.

Once he finished his morning ritual he found his scar was throbbing again. He cleared his mind as best as possible, hoping it would just go away. While Snape's lessons hadn't gone well, he did learn a few things from them. Harry shook his head at the thought of Snape. He knew he had to start training for Occlumency again, but the thought of Snape trying to teach him made Harry debate on whether to just let the dreams continue.

Harry headed towards the kitchen to prepare breakfast. Even though it was his birthday it didn't feel all that different from any other morning. He cooked breakfast for the others; the twins would probably be up in an hour and Tonks… she just woke up whenever she woke. Harry also knew that they would probably throw him a party later. He'd heard the three whispering amongst themselves and he wondered if Ron and Hermione would be able to come – he suddenly grown to miss them a lot more, especially now that Tonks was gone most of the time.

As he padded across the floor of the room he glanced at the bed and felt a tug, like he wanted to sit and watch her. He had done it some mornings, wondering why she did everything she did for him. But there wasn't even a face visible. She was completely concealed by the covers, so he continued past her.

Harry stopped at a trunk near the door. He opened it silently and touched the pillow to make sure it was still warm. Sometimes he had to prod it with his wand when it started to cool since the egg needed to stay constantly warm. Harry stared at it, some brown speckles had formed on since the night before – he would have to see if the notes said anything about that. Harry still wasn't sure what he was going to do with the animal. Surely Dumbledore wouldn't let him keep it. But then he would have to wait until it hatched. After reading through the notes he found that a lot of them were a great deal more like a dog than any of the other combined species.

Harry shut the lid and sighed, trying to keep his mind clear. He walked out the door and closed it quietly, trying to keep it from clicking, which often was loud enough to awaken Tonks. The door to the kitchen creaked slightly ahead of him and Harry stopped dead. His hand slipped into his pocket and pulled his wand from it and he checked to make sure that the second wand was secured against his arm beneath his long sleeve. There was a second noise, a light scratching, like a mouse… or a _rat_, Harry though savagely. He thought for a moment, trying to decide on a spell before he burst through the door. If Pettigrew was on the other side then he was going to make sure he didn't get away. If Sirius wasn't on the run… then… then… Harry shook his head again and focused on the task at hand.

Taking a deep breath Harry charged into the room. It was unnaturally black, almost as if all light had been sucked from it – it typically had a little bit of light coming through from the window as the sun came up. With his other hand Harry reached across his body uncomfortably searching for the light switch he knew was next to the door. His outstretched fingers found it and he held his breath as he flicked it.

"Surprise!" three separate voices shouted loudly as the light flickered on.

Harry had already said half a spell before his mind connected who they were. Tiny bits of confetti fell on him, followed by lazy balloons. As they neared the ground they seemed to disappear completely. In front of him were the twins and Tonks, with a huge cake sitting on the small table. The red and gold icing looked as though someone had tried to make it represent Gryffindor, on the top a ridiculous looking griffin. It didn't seem to have been done with much artistic talent, but at the same time Harry thought it looked like it had been done with a lot of thoughtfulness.

Standing there, Harry had no idea what to do. The sixteen candles that sat atop the cake were now lit and the flickered as Harry watched them, transfixed. He knew what he was suppose to do, he'd imagined it a hundred times before, but now that he was standing there and the cake sat before him he found it hard to actually do it.

"Well," Tonks said smiling, "blow them out. The charms that keep magic from registering aren't going to sit much longer."

Harry continued to stare at the cake, feeling the urge to blow them out, but wanting that moment to last forever. "Blow them out or we'll have a fire and the whole building'll show up."

Waiting another moment he finally heaved a deep breath and blew hard. He failed horribly to blow out more than half the candles. He however leaned in as his breath finished and helped him finish off the rest.

Having never had a true birthday party he continued to stare while George pulled out a knife and began to cut the cake up. Someone was with him on his birthday for the second time in his life, someone was there and willing to celebrate it with him. Hagrid had been the first and given him perhaps the best birthday present ever, revealing who he really was.

A small stack of presents was uncovered by a grinning Tonks, each bearing separate names. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, Tonks… "Hedwig went out and got presents and brought them to Dumbledore. He delivered them to us."

Harry looked at the clock on the wall to insure it really was 5 am and laughed. "It's just barely five in the morning guys. I've never seen any of you up before six, unless you count Tonks coming in at 4:30."

There was a moment's pause before anyone answered. It was Tonks who did. "It's your birthday silly, we can afford to wake up early one morning."

"As long as we get to go back to bed," the twins added simultaneously. "It was her idea to surprise you this early."

Harry turned to Tonks to thank her but his words disappeared before they were able to come out. Bits of red and gold were flying everywhere and Tonks made and umph sound as the cake was crushed under her. Tonks' face was quickly coated with the frosting that had only moment before been decorating the cake.

Staring, open mouthed, at Tonks Harry wasn't sure exactly what to say. As Tonks struggled to pull herself from the large cake Harry's senses snapped back and he reached down and helped he up. "I'm sorry," she said, almost crying as she looked back at the cake. "The chair was just… and I… I mean, I don't… I'm so sorry I. I worked all night to get it right and then I go and ruin it."

Laughing at her as she tried to brush off the cake he took some from what was left of the cake and tried it. "It's good Tonks, it's too bad it was used to make me laugh," he said as he chuckled. Her behavior was confusing, Harry figured she'd take it lightly like she did most other things, but for some reason she didn't. Tonks frowned and, looking depressed, stalked out of the room.

"Well," Fred said when Harry looked to them, confused. "Go after her, tell her it's alright. She really did spend all night getting it ready for you."

With little more than a nod Harry went after her, heading back into the room where they slept. There was a second bathroom that was attached inside their room, and he could see the door swinging as he entered the room. Not thinking twice about it he followed her in. "Tonks, really I loved it," he said as he pushed the door open.

He paused a second as he got a glance of her face in the mirror, it wasn't the same Tonks he knew. It was her, but it looked so much _younger_. But, she turned to him and the face was gone, it was no different from the usual look. Tears were streaming down her cheek. "I'm sorry Harry; it was supposed to be perfect. I wrote Hermione about it and everything to find out what sort of cake you liked and I made it Gryffindor colors. It was all perfect, but then I had to go and fall into it. I hate that I'm so clumsy, but sometimes I just can't seem to step right.

"Tonks, really, it's alright. I saw it, and it tasted good…" he was going to finish with something else but decided not to, rather choosing to stop speaking and see what she'd do.

"I got a present for you," Tonks said uncertainly. "I don't know if you'll like it… I just thought since you know, you lost your picture book and all that maybe I could try and get you something that might help you replace it."

Harry looked at her confused. He remembered mentioning the book once, not long after he had taken him away from his house and he did really miss it, everything he had of his parents and friends had been in it.

"Let's go open it then," Harry said, still trying to maintain his position of comforting her.

When the two appeared back in the kitchen the twins had already cleaned up the mess. "Sorry mate," George grinned, "we could go and buy you another, but it just wouldn't be the same." He winked when he saw Tonks smile slightly.

"Mine last!" Tonks said as she seemed to have cheered up completely.

Harry just shrugged as he looked at the stack of presents. He picked Hermione up first, it looked remarkably like another book and Harry wasn't surprised. As he pulled off the wrapping he came in contact with soft leather. The book was not a book, rather a type of journal. Hermione had attached a note explaining that she'd seen him making notes last year for the lessons and thought that maybe it'd be best to keep them in a book. She seemed to have collected a good deal of them and already entered them, adding some of her own notes. Everything was in order of what they'd done in the DA. The few things he hadn't been able to get to were added on the end. Harry smiled at the gift; unlike the homework journal he'd make good use of it.

Ron had gotten him a wand holster. It was used, but had been cleaned up well. Harry smiled brightly as he read the note attached to it; Ron seemed to have thought that it would help him draw his wand quicker – as if he couldn't draw it fast enough anyway.

Luna enclosed some sort of necklace. She said she and her father had come across it while they were on vacation and she thought he might like it. Supposedly it was supposed to ward off evil spells. Harry shook his head, doubting it would block any of the evil spells that would be headed his way, but still clasping it on his neck.

Ginny got him a box of chocolates and told him that she hoped that everything was alright wherever he was. It was then that the twins announced that they'd also had a present, surprising Harry and Tonks.

Fred announced like it were in the middle of some sort of ceremony. "We've gotten you a present," he said taking a knee before Harry and bowing, holding his hand above him with a scroll in it. It was held together by what looked like a set of gold rings.

"Don't worry," George said, loosing his smile, "we promise that it's not some sort of prank."

Fred hit him, "Well, it's not something that's really a prank. It won't do anything, not right now at least, just read the scroll," he said glancing to George. Harry wondered what it was and unrolled the parchment.

The scroll was actually two separate scrolls. The first, the outside scroll, had an official look. He read it over and then looked at the twins, eyeing their eager grins. "I can't," he said slowly.

"Oh, don't worry," George said, "It's already done, you're one quarter owner of our shop. You're not going to have to supply any more financial aid. Our store is doing quite well. In fact we've just hired another person other than Lee to help keep the store up. She's quite insane, you should meet her."

Harry was speechless. "Can't let your support go to waste," Fred added, grinning as widely as George. "Lee thought it up when we started to make the business all formal. He's our other partner or you would've gotten more than a quarter of the business."

"But I don't want this," Harry said. "I gave you that money so you could use it, I didn't want anything else from you."

"Ah come on Harry. It's not like you're required to do anything, it just gives you some special privileges." Fred said.

"Yeah, like the other part of the present," George piped in.

The other scroll was lying on the table and Harry picked it up, glancing at it. He looked at the rings and then back to the scroll. "You're not serious?"

Fred and George nodded eagerly. "It was your idea anyway," Fred said.

"Yeah," George added, "last year when we were talking about not being able to get the extendable ears into a closed room that had the Imperturbable charm on it you said we should just make a hole in the wall. Well, it's not exactly a hole in the wall, but it's a hole."

"Try it out," Fred said excitedly, almost tripping over himself to have Harry play with it. "It took a long time to make, but we'll make others."

Gently Harry pulled apart the two rings that were clasped together. They seemed to be stuck together like magnets and came apart with some force. They both had tiny arrows on them that pointed one direction and Harry put both of them with the arrows facing up beside each other on the table. Tonks was watching, curious and seemingly amused. She'd read the note from over Harry's shoulder while he was speaking with the twins.

She rolled up the parchment tightly and handed it to Harry. "Try it," she nudged him on.

Taking the paper Harry looked at the two rings and then plunged the tightly rolled parchment into the center of on of the rings. He gasped and let go of it as it popped out the other side. It dropped a little but didn't go anywhere, bobbing half way inside the ring. The other side seemed to have an equal length floating from the ring.

Fred pulled the parchment out of the ring and then excitedly shoved his finger through it. It popped out the other end. Harry laughed as the lone finger motioned for him to come forward. When Fred had pulled his finger back out he picked up one and handed it to George who walked out of the room with it.

"It works great," George's voice floated through the room clear as day, "when you're trying to listen to conversations that are happening in another room. Or you can watch things," he added.

Fred held up the ring and Harry placed his eye near it, seeing George's eye in it. George pulled it back until most of his face was visible. "Like you said: a hole."

"But this hole is transportable," Fred added as Harry sat the ring back down. George entered back into the room. "We're trying to work out a few things, like making the hole one sided – but for now you just have to put a silencing charm on yourselves so that people can't hear you. We blocked out the visual easily enough, just tap it with your wand and say dark and the other ring wont be able to see into the ring you have for a few hours or until you tap it and say light."

"We did add a little extra to this," George said and he pulled out his wand, tapping it. He plainly said 'off' and then picked it up and put his finger inside it slipping it on just like a typical ring. "You can just turn the voice on if you want. It opens a tiny hole instead of one that goes all the way on the inside of the ring. We set up an amplification spell so that it sounds just like the normal sized hole."

Tonks was examining the other ring that Fred had had. "You could put it on someone to keep track of someone. We're trying to make it so one ring can connect to multiple rings so that we could have one that could listen on multiple people, you know sort of like a communication device, if we could just figure out how to make all the holes the same hole."

"How'd you figure out how to do this anyway?" Tonks asked as she pulled it close to her eyes, trying to figure out where the hole was.

"It wasn't easy," George said. "We found this really old book about creating something like a Portkeys and, well, after that it didn't take long to figure out how to make the hole. We just couldn't make a big one – not yet at least. But the rings do enough for now."

Their playing done, the rings were handed back to Harry. He clasped them together and thought of putting on his finger but then decided against it. Tonks suggested putting them on the necklace that Luna had given him and Harry did, but turned them off just in case. He didn't want the necklace to disappear from around his neck.

"Mine now," Tonks said as Harry was snapping the necklace back in place. "It's not just from me either, we found it among Sirius' things and thought… just go ahead and open it."

Harry blinked and stared at the package. It had been something of Sirius'. Tonks was a goof sometimes, but she'd been really careful about the Sirius situation barely even mentioned it until now. Harry knew that Sirius was related to her, and that they probably knew each other better than he knew Sirius. Her gift seemed to get larger on the table as he thought about things and he almost dared not open it.

Tentatively Harry touched the gift, it was obviously a box or within one of some sort and he tore the paper away slowly taking much longer than he would have normally. It was enclosed in a wooden box with very little decorations. Harry could see that Sirius had carved his name into the bottom corner of it. For a minute Harry just fingered the name wondering things that he didn't want to wonder about.

Slowly he gripped the lid and pulled it off looking down into it to see what lay inside. A stone basin, filled with a silver substance. "A Pensieve," Harry murmured under his breath. It reacted to his presence and the thick silvery-white substance swirled. An image appeared as Harry felt himself getting closer and closer to it. Sirius, Peter, Remus and his father were outside somewhere. Harry's nose was so close to the material that he almost touched it when Tonks pulled him back.

"Sorry Harry, but there's a note. I think you should read it first, I think he knew that we'd give it to you when he… well just take a look."

Somehow in the few moments Harry had been staring at the note the twins had disappeared. Harry unfolded the note that was tucked into the side of the box and read it carefully.

_Harry,_

_If you're reading this now I'm dead, unless I forgot to remove it. In which case I forgot, so forgive me please. I know you don't have much to remember your father by and, after our little talk about him, I decided that this might be the best way to show you._

_Moony and I discussed this for a long time before he finally approved it and we asked Dumbledore to get one for us. They're not the easiest things to come by so please be careful with it. Because of our talk I realized some things, some things that I'd forgotten a long time ago. What James and Lilly died for was something I've always regretted, but now I don't. _

_Harry you were the best thing that ever happened to me after James died, maybe the best thing ever. I want you to know that. I wish I could give you more than you'll ever get from me._

_I know I've never been a father to you and never could be, I'm not the sort. But I wanted to give you one last gift in case one of these days I defy Dumbledore and end up with your parents. It's hard without them Harry, I miss James ever so much and my memories aren't enough anymore._

_Here's the best I could give you. Memories you've wished for all your life. Don't ever think that your father was a bad person. I know it seems like it from what you've seen and what you do see, but remember that we grew up and realized our mistakes._

_I realized how childish it was to fight with Severus a long time ago but we still can't get along. Will you tell him that I left his little keepsake in a box? It's in the secret passage behind the picture of Godric on the third floor. He'll have to use his wand because it's on the ceiling near the entrance. That's the best apology I can give him, and I couldn't while I was alive so do it for me as a last request – tell him it's from your father and me and don't be around when he gets it._

_If you want to use this Pensieve yourself you'll have to ask Dumbledore the spells a bit complicated and it was hard enough to learn myself. I'm not good at explaining things. Besides, you'll have enough memories in there to last for a while if you can't ask right away._

_Oh, one last thing. Go and kill Voldemort for me will you? I'll be rooting for you wherever I am. Tell Ron and Hermione that their promises still apply too._

_Sirius_

Harry stared at the letter, it was written in jerky writing, as if Sirius had been in a hurry when he'd written it. Some of the ink was blotted and he'd had a hard time making it out, but in the end it was all there no matter how much little he could stay to one topic.

Sirius was ready to die, he was sure of that. Harry may not have been ready for it, nor was he willing to accept it. But then he couldn't accept a lot of things and that's why he was himself. One last time Harry looked into the swirling mass of memories again and wondered how much Sirius had put in there then he closed the lid with a sigh, he'd wait until he was alone to explore.

Tonks was waiting for him in the other room. "Let's go out," she said when Harry came out of the room.

For the rest of the day Harry spent time with Tonks as she paraded him around London taking in sites he'd never seen. It was enjoyable, like most of the time he'd spent on the island had been. But as it started to get dark Tonks grabbed a cab and they ended up in front of a huge clock tower that Harry recognized.

"What are we doing here?" Harry asked suspiciously as Tonks. She took a walkway right passed the gate as if it didn't exist. Harry followed, at a quick pace, not getting any answer.

Guards were all around it seemed, but none of them seemed to notice Tonks as she strode right up to a tower and began fiddling with a lock.

It had been hard enough to stay right next to her as the snuck in the gates and around the guards, even if they didn't seem to be. Harry wasn't sure he wanted to be caught playing a prank anywhere near the place, he'd seen more police officers in this area then he thought he'd ever seen in his life.

As soon as Harry noticed she wasn't able to get the lock open he pulled a penknife from his pocket, opened up the special blade and handed it to Tonks. "Use it like a key," he whispered is silently as possible. Other than his Firebolt this was the one other thing that Sirius had given to him.

The key easily slipped into the keyhole and turned silently. "Come on," Tonks whispered as she opened the door silently. "We need to get inside before the guard comes back around."

Harry quickly followed her in. He knew exactly what they were doing there. The idea that the twins had told him about when he'd first come to their flat.

Once inside Harry made sure that the door was locked again. A flight of stairs was just to the right, Tonks headed towards them.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Harry asked as one of the stairs creaked under his weight.

"Yes," Tonks said as she slowed. "Just last year we chased a muggle up here that had gotten a hold of some magical items. He couldn't use the wand, but there was a quite a few items he was using to rob the town dry. Actually, he had a knife quite similar to the one you let me use. He was hard to catch because he was a muggle and magical devices don't put off much of a signature."

Harry just nodded, and continued following her. After several flights of stairs he stopped and waited for a few minutes and then started going again. Why, he wasn't sure, but he heard footsteps occasionally, they echoed through the stairwell.

"This idea is too great to resist – we just can't get caught. I don't think I could talk my way out of being in here."

After what seemed like ages Tonks stopped in front of a door. "Here it is," she said, putting her ear to the door.

A moment later, inside the door Harry was staring at a huge assembly, and the inside of the clock they were playing with. Beyond the clock he could make out shapes, and he suddenly wanted to see outside.

"Is there a window?" he asked, as he watched Tonks bang the Weasley product with her hand.

Tonks nodded and pointed back to the stairs. "It's on the next level. You should be alright, I don't think there's guard up here, but just keep it quiet."

Nodding, Harry headed back to the stairs, wanting to see outside. They still had a good thirty minutes before the bell would ring again and so he wasn't worried about ear protection.

It wasn't a window, it was much more. A balcony extended all the way around the tower. Slowly Harry stepped out onto it, it wasn't that late and the tower was lit up, so people could see him if they were taking pictures. The caution was soon lost as he took in the view. London was more beautiful than he'd ever imagined.

A slight scratching sound, faint over the murmur of the crowd below, made Harry turn quickly. In an instant he'd drawn his wand from his cloak and was pointing it into the shadows of the corner pillar.

"Good evening," a voice said calmly from the shadow.

A face appeared almost as if something had lit a light just above the man, but it was only enough to show his face. "Oh," the man said lazily, a smirk on his face, "there'll be no need for magic here." Then he turned back towards the city, staring out at it as Harry had been. "I'm not one to fight about such a magnificent sight. You were smart enough to get up here, we can share the view," he said calmly as Harry's grip loosened just slightly on his wand.

"Who are you?" Harry asked awkwardly, never taking his eye from the man. He wasn't about to go looking out at the city now that someone else was here.

Sighing, the stranger turned back to Harry, shaking his head. "Children, they must know everything," he said, and Harry was suddenly reminded of Snape. They both had the same chalky skin complexion. But at the same time this mans face was more drawn out and from what Harry could tell, long dark hair. Somewhat like Sirius. "So many people have asked me that question," he continued, "and yet I never have a real answer."

"My name," he said, stepping down from his seat on the railing, "is Hadwin…" He paused for a moment, as if he might have forgotten his own name. Finally he smiled briefly and continued. "Wendel Hadwin, and since we're introducing ourselves what might your name be?"

"Harry, Harry Potter," Harry replied, taking a step towards the stranger. There was no reaction and so Harry's mouth continued to speak even though he wasn't quite sure he should. "But, you already knew that, didn't you?" he asked as he stared at the man.

The stranger, Wendel, was Sirius like, more so than Harry had at first thought. A pang of grief washed over Harry but he pressed it aside, he needed to focus if he was to use magic. Sirius was dead, and this man, whoever he was, was not the man he loved. His cloak was rather shabby not unlike Lupin's, but at the same time it was different. Completely black, it wrapped around the man's body fitting his stature perfectly. The bottoms of it were so ragged that no hem remained. Some of it even came up several inches from where it had once been.

Underneath he had crimson clothing, and though none of it was quite as shabby as his cloak, it was all well worn. Harry's eyes searched out a wand or a place where it was possibly kept. Tonks had taught him it was best to try and keep one step ahead of the opponent but at the same time always be ready for the unexpected.

"My wand?" the stranger asked, his eyes locking into Harry's and not moving. He neither blinked nor lost Harry's eye. Harry almost winced under the gaze. It was almost as if the man were breaking him apart from the inside. The familiarity of it washed over Harry and he gasped, then closed his eyes and focused, trying to push the man out of his mind. While it was not the same as the way Harry had intruded this man was inside him, breaking his will rather than his body.

There was silence.

For a few moments Harry felt the need to draw his wand, but he suppressed the urge, the man had made no move towards him nor had he made any movement at all since he'd turned his head back to the streets.

"Your friend had better hurry, there's a set of guards headed up the tower right now to check on things."

"How do you know what we're doing?" Harry asked.

The stranger moved, standing to his full height on the balcony. Had Harry not known he was real he might have taken him for a black gargoyle watching the tower at night. His robes covered him completely, except for his hands which were gloved, so Harry could see nothing of him except for his face. "I know you," he said quietly, trying to recall where exactly he'd seen the man. No place came to mind, but he recalled seeing his face before.

"I doubt it," he said.

"Did you do something important?" Harry asked, thinking it was possible he'd seen a picture of the man. "Maybe I saw you in the newspaper or on the telly."

The stranger laughed deeply, and a strange sensation overcame Harry. "No, I don't think you would have. I have done things, yes, things you might see as important. But, they're not what you'd expect. I do those things for my own purposes."

When Harry had nothing to say he smiled. "What we do in life echoes in eternity," he added cryptically.

Harry had done important things too, but he would have rather stayed out of the spotlight like this stranger claimed. It was nice, getting gifts from admirers, but he rather disliked not being able to walk around without a disguise on.

A horn below honked for the second time and Harry took his eyes away from the odd stranger, taking the time to look down at the street below him. The people were like ants, moving ever so slowly on whatever paths they had chosen. A few had stopped and were looking up at the tower.

It didn't surprise Harry that a great deal of people would stare up at the clock tower and take pictures. "Don't worry," the stranger said as Harry pulled back so that his picture wouldn't be taken. "The tower's got a few tricks of it's own. From below you can't see magical people up here; it's an inventive little charm and works quite well. You could jump and no one would see you until you'd almost hit the ground."

"Why are you up here?"

A sudden movement behind Harry startled the man and then, he was gone. Harry wasn't even sure if he'd seen it correctly but the man looked as if he'd jumped off the tower.

"Nutter," Harry muttered as he turned to a bewildered Tonks.

She was staring at the ledge, her face locked in some form of terror and surprise. "Someone was there, right?"

Harry nodded and stepped past her, whoever the man was he was long gone. Maybe he played Jack too.

"Let's go," she said quickly. "If someone was there then this probably isn't the best place to be hanging around. _Don't _apparate," Harry finished as Tonks was preparing a quick escape. "That'll only get us in more trouble, I didn't exactly tell Dumbledore about that little trick you learned, or about Jack, so please don't mention either."

•


	12. One Step Forward

Chapter 12

• One Step Forward •

_The trees were painted the colors of autumn and whisked by so quickly that Harry could barely keep track of them. He stared at a little dark haired boy who sat in the compartment alone. He was frowning, concentrating on the box in his hand. Harry had never seen anything like it, it was square and smooth black. It must have served some purpose he thought as he watched the boy's hands glide over it._

_The door to the compartment slid open, a young blonde woman walked in. Harry recognized her somehow. She smiled at him, looked around, and then disappeared again through the door. The boy did not move. He didn't even seem to acknowledge her presence however brief it had been._

_The seconds ticked by and Harry found a seat, staring at the young boy. His hair was perfectly kept, falling just barely to his ears. His eyes seemed to flicker with a wicked spark. He smiled and then suddenly his fingers slid across the cube quickly. The cube shimmered and changed shape, turning into a sphere of exactly the same material. It shimmered slightly and Harry could see the reflection of everything around him._

_"Git," a voice said and both Harry and the boy turned their heads to the door that had slid open. A dark haired boy quickly entered, sliding the door closed behind him just as quick. "Hey, you don't happen to have your wand handy do you?" he asked seriously but with a smirk on his face while struggling to hold the door closed. It seemed that people were trying to force it open._

_The first boy smiled and one of his hands dropped from the ball he'd been playing with and reached into his cloak and pulled out his wand, flicking it up to the second. It seemed that what was about to happen didn't concern him as he turned to the sphere again, his hands roving over it slowly, searching for something._

_Harry however couldn't seem to keep his eyes off the second boy. It was almost like staring in a mirror. He'd seen his father older, yes, but seeing him so young gave him the oddest feeling. James had somehow been able to catch the wand in the hand that already held his own wand. He rolled them in his hands, waiting for something._

_Outside_ _someone bellowed, and James jumped back from the door. The second wand seemed to fly from one hand to the other; he flicked them simultaneously as the door crashed open. Sirius had looked up again his hands slowed to a crawl over the sphere. His eyes were focused on James, trying to pierce his thoughts._

_In a moment the train was ruckus. Three boys who had tried to force their way into the compartment were turned, all retching their guts out in the hallway. James stepped to the door, kicked one of the boys out as he was puking and then slid the door shut._

_"Thanks mate," he said cheerfully as he laid the wand next to Sirius and took a seat across from him. "Bloody Slytherins don't like being called slime. I guess it's true when they say it's hard to accept the gruesome truth," he snickered._

_The corners of Sirius' mouth turned up just slightly, the only real movement that Harry had seen on it in the last hour. "Name's James Potter," James said, offering his hand to the disbelieving Sirius._

_"Oh shut up you prat. It hasn't been that long." Sirius said smirking, "It was your fault I was sent to stay with my aunt for the past several months. My family seem to believe you were corrupting me and having a bad influence. I can't even begin to figure out why. Oh, I also happen to agree that Slytherins are the slime of the world as well – my cousin's one of the worst," he added, his face breaking into a grin. _

_"Hey, you don't know how to get one of these things open do you?" Sirius questioned James, motioning towards the ball. "My father gave it to me as a present, but said I had to get it open first. Typically I wouldn't give it much thought, but the new Comet just got released and he knows I've been wanting it. I think this was his way to help me sneak one in. I've seen the damned thing open, but he never showed me what was inside."_

_James' eye rose slightly. "Do you really think he would have done that? He's always going on about keeping the rules and he never let us get away with anything. Even that one time, we caught Mrs. Jameson and the minister at the party your father was hosting and nicked her knickers. Your father knew who she was with in there and still felt it was right to punish us."_

_"Come on," Sirius said throwing him the ball, "you do know how to open it don't you. You're just stalling. What do you want?"_

_James looked aghast. Even though Harry had the feeling it was fake, because it was a bit overdone, it looked real. Harry stepped forward and tried to touch his fathers unruly hair, wanting to feel it, wanting to have touched his father even if just for a moment. He knew it was a memory; he knew it wouldn't happen; but he just felt the overwhelming urge to do it. However, just as he had thought, Harry's hand swept right through the hair._

_"Nothing," James finally said, "well, not nothing. You're going to let me ride it if it is a broom right? If my parents hadn't felt that it was too hazardous it wouldn't have been destroyed."_

_"You and your flying machines," Sirius muttered. "It's a good thing they didn't have a photographer around or you might have been in a lot more trouble. When mother found out about that she sent me straight to my aunt without even telling me. I was just hauled off. They even went and hid the Floo powder, kept the owlery locked, and told the elves not to obey any orders from me unless it was to do with cleaning. They knew I'd try and contact you."_

_James was nodding and staring at the ball, rotating it slowly, as if looking for something. His hair was a tad bit longer than Harry's and continually fell over his glasses. "Yeah, well we'll have to fix that. Now that we can do magic I think we'll have to make some sort of fellytone like muggles have so that we can talk to each other without fireplaces."_

_"Yeah my mum'd be right livid about that, making things based on muggle gadgets. If you think you're going to just con her with that smile again you've gone…"_

_"Shh!" James said, one of his hands flipping up and down. "Watch the master," he said proudly and then pulled his hand back into an odd angle, twisting until his fingers came to stand on odd points. His eyes closed and his other hand moved along until every finger stopped. The sphere made a popping sound and grew wider, flattening out until it wasn't more than a few centimeters thick._

_Sirius gasped and reached for it but James' hand was quicker and he thrust it into the blackness, making it disappear. "Oh yeah," James said smiling, "it's a broom."_

_He pulled his hand back out until the tip of a broom was showing and Sirius moaned with pleasure, "He got it for me," he said happily._

_There was a knock on the door and James thrust the broom back down into the hole, and tossed the object back to Sirius. His wand was already out when the door began to open._

_"Trolley dears, want anything?" an elderly woman asked as her head poked into the door._

_Sirius smirked, but rattled his pockets and nodded. When the elderly lady disappeared leaving the two with a great deal of sweets Sirius reached into the device again, pulling out the broom. "You're always so tense James, you really need to relax. It's not like people are waiting outside the door to curse you."_

_The boys laughed together and Harry watched them as they traded stories about the time they'd spent apart. James had had a wonderful time, getting to go to the Quidditch world cup and even going into the players lockers. He was saving the best for last and when he pulled out a snitch signed by the Vratsa Vultures. Sirius knocked him over trying to get to it. They wrestled around and finally James gave up, letting Sirius look at it while he told his story._

_Apparently the aunt he was sent to stay with was the same cousin Harry had the pleasure of meeting a few months before. Bellatrix Lestrange, had told her mother to invite Sirius over and so he'd been invited. At first it was because she needed a friend, but when Sirius had countered the attempts she found instead he was good to practice curses on._

_Since he wasn't the best child her parents had also seen to it that he was taught manners, shown how a proper wizard should think. None of it seemed to have gone over very well with Sirius though. He claimed to have enraged his cousin so much that she cursed him in the night to keep him from talking for a whole week._

_James had a good laugh as Sirius pulled out a little statue he'd talked about. "Think they'll miss it?" he snickered as he looked it over again carefully. "They worshipped this thing and all it is, is a statue."_

_"Well they're Slytherins right? Or were, that makes more sense. Slytherins aren't there for their heads."_

_"Neither are Gryffindors," Sirius snickered. "That's what you want to be isn't it?"_

_James eyes him. "So what do you want to be? Hufflepuff?"_

_Grinning, Sirius shook his head. "That damned hat won't put me in there or I'll tell it I refuse to accept and I won't take it off until it changes the house."_

_"So Ravenclaw then?" James said, his grin breaking even wider. "You want to go be one of their lot, nose stuck in a book all day? I could see you now walking around without even looking up."_

_Sirius snorted, almost choking the piece of chocolate he'd just put in his mouth._

_The room began to fade, and Harry tried to reach for his father, he wanted to bring him to the world, he wanted to talk to him. The blackness engulfed him and another scene began to fade in._

With a great deal of effort Harry pulled his head from the Pensieve, finding himself staggering a little as he took a few steps backwards. He probably shouldn't have gone in as soon as he'd awoken, but then it was the only time he could be alone with it.

It was a few days after his birthday, the first time he'd worked up enough courage to actually go into the Pensieve. Now he was having a hard time. Seeing things in the Pensieve was a good deal different from seeing pictures that moved or images in a mirror. He held his breath, focused and then looked around; trying to relieve some of the pain he was feeling.

Tonks was lying in the bed, her eyes open and even though it looked as if she were staring at him he knew she was asleep. Her rhythmic breathing and lack of focus was the key. Occasionally he'd seen her sleep like this, it was usually when she was so exhausted that she fell asleep before hitting the bed. But sometimes, when there were noises, her eyes shot open without her waking up.

Taking a moment to slow his breath down Harry looked into the Pensieve. He'd already sworn to himself that he would only watch one or two scenes a day and if he watched them all now there would be nothing to see later in the day. Besides, he still had some work to do.

Feeling slightly light-hearted Harry padded out to the kitchen and proceeded to make an extravagant breakfast. He marked off the previous day on the calendar on the wall and went back to his room. Tonks' eyes were still open but no longer looked as if they were focused on him, but on a vase on the other side of the wall.

Quietly he opened the trunk that Bambi was in and ran his hands along the egg. A few nights prior he'd almost had been caught in a clock tower, such an adventure, like all the others he'd had. Bambi reminded him of the island, the game of Jack and of Darrian, he never wanted to forget such things but even now they were fading from his memory as though they'd happened in another lifetime.

Harry grabbed the present Hermione had given him and pulled a quill from the inkwell on the desk, scribbling down another note.

The last pages of the book contained things he'd been thinking about, things he wanted to learn or do. It started with _Show the others how to apparate_. He'd been thinking about this for a long time, they were getting old enough that apparating would be something that they could do legally and it was really handy in situations like what had happened last year. He had just finished writing _Learn how to use the Pensieve properly so I can remember everything_. He looked back down to the book and underlined the word "_everything_." He hoped it was possible that certain things he had forgotten could be brought back.

There was a slight squeak behind him and Harry flipped around quickly to see Tonks rolling out of bed. "Morning Harry," she murmured as she walked past him, stopping to peak over his shoulder then continuing past the room. There was a muted yelp and a curse and Harry knew she'd caught her toe on the cabinet for the fifth time in the past week.

He smiled and stared at the door for a few minutes and had another thought. Quickly he turned back to the book and scribbled more words under where the quill had dripped a few splotches of ink. '_See if Tonks will help me learn things to teach the DA'_. He sighed, then dropped the quill back into the inkwell and closed his book. He wanted to start training in force again. While Tonks had shown him a few things, there wasn't much they could do unless they were somewhere that no one would bother them about using magic.

The dream he'd had the night before had been a pleasant one, about: Hermione working with him in the library with Ginny and Luna interrupting to tell them they were late for DA meeting. Ron and Neville had been trying to teach the class when they'd finally arrived and everything was a mess. Harry laughed as he thought of the dream even though it was strange to think about it.

The day passed slowly with Harry doing little more than going through prank books and scribbling notes about spells or tricks he might be able to use in a fight. He really wished that the twins had more books about things other than pranks.

Tonks appeared again and Harry stared at her as she went through the drawers looking for something to wear. Her terrycloth robe she wore was a bit big for her but she loved to wear it, especially in the morning. "When are we going to get back to real training?" he questioned her as she found a white shirt with a single word printed in dark letters on the front. Harry thought it was a bit odd to wear a shirt that said muggle on it when no one in the muggle world would know what it meant.

Briefly, Tonks paused, but went back to searching for a pair of pants. "When we have time Harry, you know that I don't have much right now, and we can't do magic here anyway."

"Let's go back to the island then," Harry suggested quickly.

The shirt in Tonks' hand dropped to the floor and Harry could hear her take a long breath of air. "So you can see Korina again?" Tonks asked sharply in a voice that was very unlike her. "You know she likes you a lot."

"Korina was nice," Harry said quietly, wondering why Tonks was acting strange. "But I just had a lot more freedom there and I didn't always feel so miserable there."

Reaching down, Tonks picked up the shirt and pulled a pair of pants up. "It's because of the charms they put up to keep everyone happy. It makes it for good business when everyone's a little more cheerful than usual. They can only do it because no one can stop them, it's a typical practice there."

"We can't go back," she said quietly, "I wish we could sometimes but we can't, for a while at least. Maybe next summer," she added cheerfully, perking up visibly. She turned and headed back to the bathroom. Harry didn't hear the words she tagged on the end with a sad frown. "If you're still alive."

When the twins came home that evening Tonks disappeared as usual, but Harry wasn't sure if she was going to work or not, thought for some reason he didn't think she had to. After cleaning up, Harry sat on his bed making further notes in his book, deciding what it was he wanted to teach to the DA. The first dozen pages were filled with dozens of ideas and ways in which he could teach. There was Neville, who always needed someone to be there. Even though he had done quite well, he still needed someone to keep him in good spirits. Hermione could take care of herself and possibly even help share the teaching load. She was apt at everything that he taught her. Ron needed more help than most of the members, but with Hermione around he always seemed to do alright. Ginny was good, Luna was smart enough but she seemed to get distracted quite often.

As Harry ticked off the members in his head there was a crash and the front door clicked closed. In the other room he could hear hoarse giggling. Feeling odd, Harry placed his stuff to on the dresser next to the bed and stood up. The door flew open proclaiming Tonks' entrance. She was standing there, half hunched over and looking sort of insane. The door banged against the wall and she looked over to it "Shh!" she whispered into the air. "It's late, everyone's asleep."

One of her hands grabbed the door roughly and swung it to the door frame, slowing right before it snapped close and then moving tediously slow until the door clicked quietly. "There," she whispered to herself and then whirled around.

Just before the door had shut he could have sworn he saw two sets of eyes peeping from across the hall. Tonks straightened up a little and stared at Harry for a minute, trying to place him it seemed. "Oh," she uttered in a half-slurred, half-surprised voice, "you're suppose to be asleep."

Harry stared at her for what seemed like hours, but it was no longer than a minute. When she stepped forward his eyes fell away and he stepped forward to help her as she stumbled towards the bed. She groaned twice and stopped sort of waving in mid-air. Harry wasn't sure what was wrong with her. Tonks was not herself, he was well aware of that.

When she finally came to rest right in front of him she leaned down just slightly, she wasn't much taller than him, and looked right into his eyes. "You and I are friends, right?" she said loudly, and her hand shot to her mouth as if she could stop the sound from coming out of her mouth. Her hand struck Harry on the face and he jumped backwards as a reflex. She giggled obnoxiously and her hand fell onto Harry's face as if it were some sort of apology.

Before he jumped back he noticed a strong smell that seemed to be coming from her. Though he had never smelled it before he had a pretty good idea what it was and why she was acting this way.

"You're drunk!" he whispered fiercely.

"Nnnnnuhhhuhhh," Tonks said shaking her head far too vigorously. "I…" she paused, and dropped the tone of her voice, "don't get drunk. I'm just a little inabr… ineebree… smashed. It's just fine," she said. Her hand came to a rest on Harry's face again, "Happens all the time."

Since Harry had been around her, he hadn't once noticed her coming home like this. He knew it was a lie.

"Come on, you need to lie down, you can't even walk straight," Harry said softly. For some reason he felt slightly betrayed inside though, he didn't like her like this.

Shaking her head again forcefully Tonks blinked and almost fell over. Once she'd regained the balance she had somehow she looked at Harry and then flipped her head towards the restroom connected to their room. "I need," she said and then took several quick steps towards the door but never made it. Her head bobbed back and forth just a little bit before she leaned forward and threw up all over the hardwood floor.

She began to slump to the ground but Harry moved forward and caught her. "You're always so nice to me Harry, and you never look at me like all the other men," she slurred. "I just wish," she paused and brushed his hair away from his eyes. Harry was caught surprised when she reached down and kissed him on the lips.

Harry panicked as he realized Tonks kissing him. The fact Tonks just vomited didn't help the already awkward situation. The kiss was and wasn't like the one he received from Cho Chang. It was still wet, but a different kind of wet, a putrid kind Harry did not like. Tonks obviously felt differently about the kiss and pressed harder into Harry. All Harry could smell was her vile breath under his nose. Harry broke away from Tonks almost as quickly as she kissed him. She looked at him like a lost child then collapsed into his arms. Her dead weight made it difficult for Harry to keep hold of her.

At the door Harry saw the twins standing there, gawking. "Help me," he muttered as he tried to drag her over to the bed. It only took a minute for both of them to rush forward and help him lay her in the bed. Harry ran for a rag right away and once he'd gotten it he proceeded to clean her up a bit.

The twins were staring at him when he went back for a bucket. It had been a long time, but Dudley had thrown up a lot when he was younger, sometimes just to make Harry clean it up. "She kissed you," George said stupidly, "and you pulled away."

"She's drunk," Harry pointed out.

George shook his head. "You really need to learn a little more about her, Harry," he said quietly. "She's still quite aware of what's happening when she's drunk, she just does things that she'd refrain from doing otherwise."

With a glance towards Tonks Harry was on his knee's cleaning up the mess. "Like what?" he asked before the twins walked off. He really did want to know more about her. She seemed to know everything about him and he'd barely heard a word about her. She took him to the island, and she had never said very much about how she'd ended up there other than she had been in trouble.

"Well there was the time she came to the headquarters pretty messed up last year," Fred pointed out and George followed him, laughing.

"Yeah, well Snape was there at the time and chastised her for coming to the headquarters in that state."

Fred laughed, "Well she never liked Snape much. She'd told us a few times before then, and… well,"

"He won't ever forget your name," George snickered.

Harry slopped the last bit of the waste into the bucket along with the rag and looked at them. "What does that mean?" he demanded.

Fred and George looked at each other and then back to Harry their faces spread so wide in a grin that Harry was hoping that they were joking. "Well somehow Tonks learned this tattoo spell," George said seriously even though his face was almost breaking with a grin. "I've never heard one like it."

"She didn't," Harry whispered, his eyes wide.

"Yep," Fred said, "right on his ass. 'I love Harry Potter' with a little heart on the end."

"But, why?" Harry asked after they'd left the room, he was astonished that she had done such a thing. Harry dumped the foul water down the sink and rinsed the rag he had been using as he continued. "She'd barely knew me, if she even knew me at all."

"Nah, this was during term, after we'd left school. Mum can't keep us out of the order any longer. Anyway, she seemed to have heard some nasty things about your aunt and uncle before she'd gone out and when Snape said some things about you afterwards… Well she didn't take it well," Fred said quietly.

"Sure wish we'd thought of it," George added, "he'd have had a tattoo of the Gryffindor on his back."

"But… how?" Harry asked incredulously as he wrung the rag out for the last time, "Snape wouldn't just let Tonks tattoo him, and there must have been someone else around to stop him."

"The only one around other than us was…" Fred started, but paused.

They two looked between themselves and Harry knew who else was around. It was obvious, they had left a long time before it had happened. And afterwards, Tonks was in the hospital. "Sirius," he muttered, "who would have helped if he could have."

"Oh, he did," George said quickly. "But Tonks had already knocked Snape out. He showed her where the best spot would be. While she was doing it. he watched the whole time. Looked as if he were about to win the Quidditch cup. I think if he hadn't been worried about Dumbledore coming down on him he would have added his name there as well."

Harry blinked. "But why? Did Sirius tell her to do it?"

"No, she was already on her way when Sirius came downstairs. He and Snape stayed out of each others way whenever they were at the same place."

Something occurred to Harry and he looked up, shaking his head. "But Snape… he was at Hogwarts every day."

"Oh he came by the headquarters a good bit, nights and weekends mostly, but he was always around." Fred pointed out.

"Does anyone else know?" Harry asked, dropping his voice without thinking as if he were trying to keep the secret from some invisible fiend.

The twins shook their heads. "Remus was out on a mission and mum was at home, it was just after she'd had a fight with us about joining the order – that's why we were there in the first place."

"So why didn't anyone tell?" Harry asked, confused, the twins would have jumped at the idea to let everyone know such a thing.

"Well see, we were going to," George said.

"But when Tonks woke up the next morning she knew what she'd done and she made all of swear not to tell anyone," Fred added quickly.

"You told me."

"Yeah, well we're pretty sure that she'll only get a little mad at us, after all you're the one she kissed." Fred said, getting a little too personal for Harry and he suddenly was feeling a little boxed in.

Harry looked at Fred, "and what's that suppose to mean?" he demanded, knowing full well what Fred was implying.

"Well…" Fred started not sure how to say it without being too blatant. He had seen Harry in bad moods before and now it seemed as though he was headed full bore into one.

"Nothing," George said, feeling the same way Fred was. "You're tired, Harry. Go to bed, we can talk about things tomorrow."

Harry glanced at the bedroom door, feeling terrified all of the sudden, he wasn't afraid in the same way he was afraid of Voldemort. What the difference was though, he couldn't say. Closing his eye and gritting his teeth he moved forward opening the door and closing it behind him. He was already dressed for bed but the smell that permeated through the room made him choke. He moved to the window and opened it to let the night air flow in. It was chilly, but he could bear that.

Slowly he slipped into bed thinking about what the twins had said and what Tonks had done. She'd kissed him. She had gotten piss drunk, then come home, and kissed him. The twins seemed to think it was something that she wanted to do, but something she wouldn't have done otherwise. But he remembered her eyes as she stared at him. There was something there, something he had never seen before.

Shivering, he pulled the covers over him more and began to drift off. It wasn't long before he awoke though,. Tonks was shivering and he could tell that it had been a bad idea to open the window. He started to roll to the side of the bed to close it but Tonks caught the arm which had been lying in her side. "Come closer," she said. Her words were still slightly slurred. "Warm me up."

"But the window," Harry said, trying to get her to let go.

She would not. She pulled him closer to him until she was holding his arm to her chest. He could hear her crying softly. "Just keep me warm Harry, please." Tonks whispered.

Having no other choice, Harry slipped his other arm under her and pulled her as close as he could to him. "It's alright, I've already cleaned everything up, you'll be fine tomorrow," he said, trying to make the best he could of the situation.

"You don't have to stay here," she said, and Harry could feel her body shake with the soft sobs as she tried to form words. "I know I'm a screw up and I'm not the right person for you, but every time I try and tell myself I can't be with you, you smile and tell me it's alright."

The words she said meant so much that Harry almost pulled away to think. He knew he wasn't the best person for her to be saying this to, he didn't understand it as well as he would have liked to. Hermione would, but he couldn't think about Hermione while Tonks was crying right next to him. "Shh," he whispered in her ear, holding her tighter. "You need some sleep."

It was all Harry could do, but it worked. Her soft sobbing died slowly and her body relaxed in his hold. At one point he began to pull his arm away from her but she gripped it and he could hear her saying, "don't let go."

•

Something wasn't right.

The moment Harry woke up he felt it. It wasn't the slight pulsating in his scar, he was used to that. The chilly air was different, but not something that was completely new. He had left the window open before. Then as the wind flicked against the back of his neck he remembered why he left the window open.

It was like a great avalanche and his whole nervous system froze momentarily. One by one images of what had happened the night before flooded over him and other images, things he didn't understand. There was the drunk Tonks puking, cleaning up, an imaginative idea of Snape laying on the ground as a drunk Tonks tattooed him. Then there was the moment he went to bed. But there was more. Another face, and an image so vivid that Harry almost shot out of bed in surprise.

Standing over the sink, Harry splashed water over his face repeatedly, trying to make the thought go away.

Korina.

Everything was there. The club, oh he remembered the club, the girls, and the drinking. A taste filled his mouth and Harry spat it out, splashing more water on his face. He gripped the cabinet and stared at himself in the mirror, trying to make sense of everything. They were jumbled pictures, but it was there.

Something had brought it back. Whatever wall there had been that had blocked out the memory had crumbled in only a moment. A shiver ran up Harry's spine. Everything that he did... everything that had happened confused him. He took a deep breath and remembered where he was, remembered that what had happened between him and Korina was the past.

To top it all when Harry walked back into the room Tonks was waking up. He stared at her, surprised, her face had changed.

"Is there something on my face?" she asked even before opening her eyes.

"No," Harry mumbled but couldn't tear his eyes away from her. "You changed."

The hands, which had been lying out in front of her jumped to her face and then, a moment later, she pulled them away and she was normal again. "Sorry," she mumbled.

"Go back," Harry said without thinking, completely unable to stop himself. He liked what she had looked like.

Tonks stared at him but nodded slowly. Her face visibly relaxed and melted away, unlike when she usually had to screw up her face and concentrate. "Is that what you really look like?" he asked mutedly, staring at her.

His stares seemed to bother her a good deal but she didn't tell him that. "Yes," she said as she nodded. "When I have really strong emotions I can't hold the morph I've taken."

"Strong emotions?" Harry asked quietly, as he stepped towards her, wondering why she would have had such emotions. "Last night you had strong emotions?"

"Dolt," Tonks said, a soft smile on her face. "Last night you held me like we were more than just... you know, friends. Do you think that we could be – more than just friends? I've been having these feelings every time I think about you," she said softly, and her hand started to move to her face again to cover it.

Harry had still been unable to tear his eyes away from her, before she'd been attractive, but now, in someway she was better. Maybe because she was younger, she didn't look more than seventeen or eighteen. He reached forward and grabbed her hand. "It's alright, I just have never seen the real you. Why do you hide your face anyway? I thought you were almost thirty when I first met you, you were younger than everyone else, but not _young._" he asked as he found a seat next to her. He wasn't sure what he was doing exactly, but he knew what the fluttering in his stomach was.

"I... when I first joined the Aurors no one took me seriously because I looked like a little kid," she said sadly. "I didn't age normally after I was eleven; I think my body doesn't age like most peoples, so when I first started I looked fourteen. It didn't take me long to discover that most of the guys wouldn't respect me until I was older looking so I changed my appearance. Most people didn't even know that I was the same person. And you wouldn't believe how many people actually talked to me like a real person."

"So no one really knows what you look like anymore?" Harry asked quietly.

Tonks slipped her hand into his and held it for a second. When she finally answered, she spoke softly, but firmly. "No one's seen my real face in almost four years." The fluttering in Harry's stomach became almost unbearable. "But I'm showing you Harry, because I don't think I would want you to know me any differently." Then, in a surprising gesture closed her eyes and leaned towards him.

"That... I..." he stuttered, staring at her, not knowing if he should kiss her or not. His heart was beating so fast that he thought it might break his chest right open.

"Shh," Tonks said, placing her finger to his lips. When she removed it, her own lips were so close that Harry had little choice but to accept it.

When their lips touched Harry felt the fluttering in his stomach disappear. One of his hands slipped around her as she pulled him down into a laying position on the bed. Though he didn't have any idea what to do his body responded to her movement and he continued to hold the kiss until he had almost run out of breath. He pulled away briefly and stared down at her, but he wanted more, he liked the kiss and he dropped his head to give one to her. He was too fast unfortunately and their noses collided.

Harry pulled back again, not sure what to do. Underneath him, Tonks giggled slightly. It looked good, having her under him and laughing. But an image from before struck Harry hard, he'd been in the same position with Korina at one point. Harry jerked back harder, not sure how to react to it.

Tonks was staring at him, her now blue eyes looking deeply disturbed, as if she had been rejected. Then the pain in his scar heightened so much that he fell over and screamed. His hands were covering the scar, as if they could somehow take away the pain. He could feel the blood flowing freely through his closed fingers and he heard people in the background. Somewhere, in his mind he could hear a cold laugh and a cruel voice whisper in his ear that he would never be allowed such happiness.

•


	13. Hogsmeade

Chapter 13

• Hogsmeade •

"Harry!" Tonks snapped from the corner of the room as he tried to sit up. "I'm no healer, but it's pretty obvious that you're not going to recover for at least another few hours. Please let yourself rest, you'll never get better if you just try to push yourself every time you get hurt."

Sighing, and with both the back of his neck and his forehead throbbing angrily at him, Harry laid back down on the bed. He looked around, and had a strong suspicion that they weren't at the Weasley's residence anymore. "Where are we?" he asked, trying to peer out the window that was partially open on the far wall, There was a slight twinkling and he figure it was night and that was why he couldn't see anything.

"Hogsmeade," Tonks said wearily

"You need sleep," Harry said, as he stared at her new face. He knew it was her because she was wearing a bracelet she never seemed to take off and she had the same voice. Her eyes were drooping and they had bags under them. There was even some redness in them and it looked like she might have been crying recently.

"What happened?" Harry asked, finding the strength to rub his lightning scar, it was still pounding unbearably. He gasped quietly when he pulled away and found that there was a slight bit of blood still on it.

Tonks didn't seem to notice though. "I'll be alright; you're the one I'm worried about. You screamed bloody murder before you collapsed. Your head was bleeding like mad and I couldn't make it stop with any spells. Dumbledore showed up and I thought we should take you to St. Mungo's, but he stopped the majority of the bleeding and then told me it wouldn't be safe for you there. He doesn't seem to think many places are safe for you."

Harry grinned weakly at her. "And he thinks that you being around will help matters?"

It took a moment, but Tonks smiled back and Harry grinned wider. "Already back to your same old witty self, I see," she said. "Nothing's changed, has it?" she asked, staring right at him. He could see her face change to the face she shown him what seemed like only a few minutes ago.

There was a reply that sat on the tip of Harry's tongue, but he didn't say it. He knew what Tonks was talking about and he was afraid that if they did do something that she would be hurt and he didn't want that, he didn't want her as a target. He'd already done enough damage, getting her into trouble with everyone. She may have been able to talk her way out of it, but she had been demoted because of it.

"I can't," Harry said, his voice barely above a whisper. The room was completely silent though and Tonks heard it clearly. "He knows Tonks, that's why he attacked me. I can't have someone getting hurt because I have feelings for them."

"It's alright here, this room has some sort of spell on it; you can't have any magical connections in here. Nothing would work, Portkey or Floo, apparating. There's only one way to get in and that's through the door. You shouldn't have any scar attacks here. He could be standing outside the room and you wouldn't be able to connect with him."

Even with the ability to do whatever he wanted it wasn't enough. If he put it off now he would be able to keep her away and not worry about it when they were outside the room. "No," Harry said, his voice still a whisper and with conviction. It seemed as if he were trying to convince himself too. "I don't think you understand. If he knows that I... that we still... you'll be a target. He'll always be there somewhere when you're not prepared."

"Yeah," Tonks said sarcastically and rolled her eyes. "I joined the Aurors so that I would be safe. And joining the Order was just because I couldn't find anything else to do besides sleep at night. Harry – I'm not afraid of him, I mean, maybe a little, but I am already a target for him. He knows I'm in the order, I was at the ministry last year."

"You don't understand," Harry pleaded, still trying to convince himself. "Voldemort wants me more than anyone else. If there's anyway he can get to me he'll use it. I can't just let something like..." he paused and stared at Tonks for a few moments, trying to find the words he could say and make it come out right, "feelings make me do something that would get someone else hurt."

Tonks had an extremely funny look on her face, and she looked sort of like a seventeen year old trying to get out of classes by faking a stomach ache. He'd seen the look before from Hermione – but it was when she was disappointed and torn about something he was doing or planning on doing.

"I meant it Harry," Tonks said, "what I said before, what I did before. I really, really like you Harry. But you want to take the burden on yourself all the time even if it's not yours to carry. I don't know why the hell I can't just tell you off and try and forget, but I can't and, honestly, I really don't want to."

The more she talked the more Harry wanted not to like her. But he couldn't. The butterflies that were flittering in his stomach only made matters worse. He just stared at her for a long time. It seemed that every time she blinked her eyes were closed longer and longer until she couldn't keep them open anymore. Her wand clattered to the floor and still she did not wake.

Once Tonks had drifted off Harry tried to sit up, which was very difficult. His head throbbed wickedly but he was able to press himself up against the headboard of the bed. His scar had begun bleeding again, dripping blood down his face, into his eyes. It stung like mad, but Harry only wiped it off, trying to ignore the pain that it caused. He pushed himself to the side of the bed and trembling took a step.

The last attack had made him understand something, something he'd thought on before but never truly acted upon. He caused pain and death to others and he did not want such to be. Voldemort had found him, at the Dursleys and then at the headquarters. He was going to great lengths to track Harry no matter where he was. Harry was going to rely on that and leave, go somewhere far away where Voldemort would follow. Hopefully he would be able to sneak way from Tonks without her knowing.

Harry stopped himself as he finally got his feet to the floor. If he only waited a day he would have full strength and be able to sneak out already. It was then that Harry had an epiphany. He was sitting on the edge of his bed and he felt weak, his head and neck throbbing horribly. At the door sat Tonks, someone who seemed to care for him. Somewhere, not far away was Hogwarts, the school where he'd learned magic and could learn how to stop Voldemort.

Lupin had once told him he could understand if Harry couldn't get the Patronus charm right because he was a child, but then Harry had done it because he _knew_ he could. Just like fourth year, when he'd beaten a dragon with a broomstick (which was no small task). In fifth year it should have been so obvious when Hermione had started the DA, there was a reason that he was elected to lead them, a reason he was teaching the meetings. He could do it. He had been doing things most thought impossible even before he could remember. Now all he had to do was force himself to learn.

He wasn't sure how much time passed as his brain began to form ideas. The Pensieve was an amazing tool and he suddenly wanted to take advantage of it for more than the memories held within. He could remember incidents – spells he had seen, spells he could use against Voldemort. But, the only way he would be able to learn them was with the Pensieve.

Then there was the DA. There was so much he could train them with, he would push them to learn more, try to discover their strong points and focusing on them. He'd need more help, Hermione was good at that. Hermione and Ron – he'd have to make them work harder. They were his friends, and if they were going to stay as his friends they'd need to be able to protect themselves even better.

Last was Tonks. Harry stared at her from his position, her head was up against the wall and she had a calm look on her face, a slight smile even. The frown of concentration on his face lightened as he remembered her kissing him. He touched his own lips. It had been so much different from when Cho had kissed him. It was like night and day. He'd felt something when she kissed him, just before Voldemort felt the need to cause him such pain, he'd felt something. If he was ever going to let Tonks do that again he would have to be able to block Voldemort – keep him from reaching into his mind and taking those thoughts. And he'd have to stop him, and in the end... Harry's grip tightened on the blankets on his bed. In the end he'd have to kill him.

After focusing so much on what he was going to do he took in the room. There was a table, with Hedwig's cage on it. He assumed that she was off hunting or something similar. There were three trunks sitting in the corner, two Harry recognized, one being Bambi's and one being Tonks'. His possessions – the few he had now – were in Tonks' trunk. And last was the small box that had 'Sirius' carved into the bottom slat of wood, the Pensieve which was now his most treasured possession because of the memories it held.

How much time Harry spent thinking, he wasn't sure, but there was a deep intake of breath and then a little snort and Tonks' head shot up. Her eyes wide, and roving the room. When they landed on Harry he saw them light up and a panicked smile filled her face.

"How long did I sleep?" she asked insistently.

"Only a few minutes," Harry lied, trying to make her feel better. "You're tired, you should get some more rest. There's a bed here, and it's big enough for both of us. Just put something in front of the door so that if anyone tries to force it open we'll hear them. You can't protect me if you don't have enough rest."

The smile on her face widened as Tonks spoke. "You don't mind sharing the bed then?" she said happily.

"No," Harry said quietly, "it'll be nice to have someone next to me again, I'm already beginning to miss it."

A few minutes later, after Tonks had shoved a table in front of the door and then propped a piece of wood up against the handle, she was helping Harry lie back down. She glanced to the door and then commented that it wasn't the safest way to do it.

"It'll be alright," Harry said smiling to her, "I may not be the quickest out of bed right now, but I got some rest and I can listen for people."

Tonks smiled again and slipped into the bed next to Harry, putting her arm around him. "Yes, it'll always be alright, won't it?"

•

The next morning, when Tonks had gotten enough sleep and the throbbing had ebbed Harry found himself in the middle of Hogsmeade, with poisonously blue hair, spiked like a hedgehog. The scar was no longer present on his forehead. They walked along, under an umbrella because of the unbearable torrential rain. It had not ceased since the beginning of the summer. Tonks said it was even worse here, and though the lightning, which had struck both Harry and Tonks, was not around, bursts of it still flashed in the night air followed by the rumbling of thunder.

Underneath the blue his face shone brightly, a dark color, even darker than a good tan. It looked like some of the foreign wizards he'd run across while they were on Icaria. Harry even had a crisp accent that made it hard for Tonks to not laugh at him every time he spoke. It wasn't the best, he knew that, but then he hadn't practiced becoming other people as much as he wanted. Even the time he'd spent doing it at The Hole wasn't enough.

The color of his eyes had been changed as well. Tonks was getting very good at making him someone else and Harry would have tried it if he wasn't worried about getting expelled. He was satisfied with watching carefully. He could review it in his Pensieve later and try it over and over again. And as soon as he learned it he'd take it to the DA members, they could certainly use it for something.

"Come on then," Tonks nudged him on as they entered the Hogsmeade branch of Gringotts. She walked right up to one of the goblins standing to the side, showed him something and then motioned for Harry to follow her.

A goblin was suddenly at her side and he led them out of the room and into a stone passage. Everything was familiar to Harry and he just tagged along, trying to be sure to keep an extra special eye while the cart rocketed them through the passages. His eyes spotted a long wisp of a tail down a corridor and he decided that the rumors – that dragons guarded some of the vaults – were true.

When they finally reached his vault, after a longer ride than Harry remembered, Tonks was bracing herself on the side of the cart. "Redblood?" she asked, addressing the goblin by name, "can we go a bit slower on the way back?"

"Cart only goes one speed," the goblin said with a wicked sort of grin. He seemed to be enjoying the ride.

The goblin waddled out of the cart and took Harry's key, placing it inside the vault.

Harry made his way in as quickly as possible; Tonks had told him that he needed to get things done quickly. The less time they were out the less time he could be felt. The vault was the same one he had been to while coming from Diagon Alley, which surprised him, and he realized that they must connect somehow in the endless tunnels.

When Harry'd filled this time he noticed how much his account had changed. Now, instead of a hefty pile, his account was dwindling. In the beginning he was sure it had been a great amount of money, but now he'd gone through almost half of it. He would have enough to end the school years easily, but after that it wouldn't last long.

When Harry exited, his moneybag filled to the brim, Redblood looked him over a second time. His lip curled slightly, but he never said anything. For some reason Harry felt that the goblin didn't seem to like him very much.

Outside of the bank, after Tonks had taken a minute to get her feet to walk in a straight line, they were walking down the street towards the shops.

Something struck Harry in the ass and he turned around to see a huge grin plastered on a new Tonks' face. He couldn't miss this face, she looked slightly younger than normal, with short bright-green hair and spikes that poked out of it like a pincushion. They were quite the pair, the two of them, but while making an odd couple, they didn't look like Harry and Tonks.

Several of the witches they'd seen looked at both or them with revulsion, and one lady insured she whispered (loud enough that it reached Harry's ear) that Tonks' hair reminded her of an ogre. Tonks laughed and stuck her tongue out at the lady, a huge wart suddenly gracing the tip of her nose.

"You're such a child sometimes," Harry muttered to her.

"Have some fun _Sly_," Tonks said, making sure to emphasize the name he'd been given while they walked around. Tonks wanted to keep from calling him Harry just incase someone saw through his disguise. She seemed to like the nickname that Darrian had given him. "You haven't even been outside in weeks and now you're as grim as you were inside."

"We still need to get all my books," Harry muttered, "and I need new robes and potion supplies. Then there's the parchments and quills, gloves, cauldron, scales..." he ticked off everything in his head which he figured he would need. "And of course, a trunk, mine was burned up with everything else in it."

"You didn't see the one I'd got for you?" Tonks asked, stopping.

Harry looked up at her inquisitively. "That's mine?"

Tonks nodded, a huge grin plastered on her face. "See my mum owns a shop in France and we figured since the Pensieve was sort of Sirius' gift to you we'd get you something else you'd need. That trunk is one of the latest models, there's an enormous amount of space inside even though it looks small. I reckon you could live in the thing if you were bent on it. Not that you'd have enough room to setup a kitchen or living room."

Having seen a trunk that was sort of similar Harry nodded an understanding, he'd have to look into it later and find out exactly what it was like. If it was like Moody's trunk there was a whole lot more to it than what Tonks had said.

"Robes first then," Tonks announced and then scampered down the street like a giddy schoolgirl.

It took Harry a minute to catch her, and when he finally did it was in front of Gladrags Wizard Wear. "This way," she said happily. "Let's get you some robes?"

Inside Harry was met with an elderly attendant who looked at Harry rather loathingly. "Can I help you?" she asked in a silky voice. "Or are you just browsing?"

Harry looked a bit startled, but then when he realized what they must look like, neither wearing anything that looked remotely new, and Tonks even dressed much more like a muggle. "Yes," Harry said, meeting her silky voice with a very determined look. "I need some school robes this year, after an unfortunate accident I no longer have any at all."

The old witch looked at him for a few minutes longer, "Alright then," she muttered, "What'll you be needing?"

"Three plain black robes, a couple of black cloaks and I think that's good..." Harry said, making sure to use his strong accent.

But Tonks cut him off before he could finish. "He'll be getting a crimson robe or two, and one that's a dress robe as well. I've also got another question do you carry defense robes, level four?"

It seemed, until Tonks had asked her that question, the lady hadn't even bothered to really notice them. She didn't care one bit if they shopped there or not, she was barely even paying attention even while they spoke to her. However, once the question had been raised a sharp eye roamed over Harry and Tonks, her half smile fading to a grimace.

"What do you want robes like that for? You've got to have special Auror credentials to get something like..." she paused as Tonks showed her something that was concealed in her palm.

The attendant winced and then nodded with a sigh. "He'll be the one needing the defense robes?"

When Tonks nodded the lady turned her back to them and then yelled. "Emily! Emily, get your ass out here. I need you to do a fitting for this nice young man."

A young lady appeared a minute later and nodded without saying a word. She looked from Tonks to Harry and then turned towards the old lady. "The boy," she said sharply, and pointed as if she hadn't been specific enough the first time.

The young woman nodded just barely and then turned, motioning for them follow her. She disappeared behind the same curtain she'd just come through. On the other side of a curtain she had Harry stand on a small stool and proceeded to measure him.

"Hi Emily," Tonks said, being her usually perky self and watching like a child.

When Emily had finished measuring Harry's chest and had started to move further down Tonks grabbed her hand. "We're going to be getting him some very special robes, so you might want to make sure that the measurements aren't even a millimeter off."

Harry followed Emily's eyes to Tonks and then looked at the grin on Tonks' face. "What does that mean?" he asked suspiciously but before he could do anything else, his shirt was being lifted from his body. "I'm not getting naked in front of some strange girl!" he yelped finding himself unable to stop what was happening.

"So you'll get naked in front of me?" Tonks questioned, the sparkle in her eyes undeniable. "Oh come on Harry, it's not like I never saw you."

Harry blushed brightly and coughed. "I... erm..."

"Just kidding," Tonks winked, and Emily smiled. It was the first time Harry had seen any emotion on Emily's face. "See look, you even made this pretty girl smile. Don't worry, we're not going to get you completely naked. You'll still be in your unmentionables."

Grinning, and bearing it while he was stripped down Harry looked to Tonks. "What are defense robes?"

"You'll see. I figure you could use some for when we get into cursing each other. You're going to need something that'll absorb the force of some of the spells."

"They absorb spells?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Well, not exactly," Tonks said, her face scrunched up thinking. "You ever see someone try to curse a giant?" Harry shook his head, but then recalled seeing Hagrid being cursed from the window the end of the previous year.

"What about a dragon?" Tonks asked before Harry could answer.

He had seen a dragon cursed. It had taken at least seven fully trained wizards per dragon – each with very focused stunning spells to even slow it. "Yeah, fourth year, we had to get past them for the Triwizard Tournament."

Emily stopped measuring and she was looking up at him funny. When Harry glanced back down she quickly returned to her measuring. She was finished a few minutes later, and had a notepad with at least two dozen numbers on it. Harry had never seen that many numbers when he'd been fitted before. "Why do the numbers need to be so specific?" Harry asked Tonks once Emily had disappeared.

"Well, see, these robes aren't exactly normal robes. There are two layers to them. One's made of... well it depends. Usually dragons hide or Basilisk skin. They have the same properties in most cases; just sometimes it's hard to get a hold of one or the other."

"Dragons and Basilisks are similar?" Harry questioned her, intrigued.

Tonks looked at him like he was stupid. "Yeah, you didn't know? Their skins not the same material, but it has similar properties. Anyway, they're not the same species, but you got to figure they had some ancestor that's similar. Dragons are a lot like snakes in many ways, just they're a good deal bigger, have limbs and breath fire." She paused for a second. "You're a Parselmouth, right?"

"So?"

"Well _I_ figure," Tonks said, looking as if she'd made some great discovery. "Dragons, they're a lot like snakes, and if you can speak to snakes you should be able to speak to dragons, right?"

Harry looked aghast. "No..." he said, shaking off the thought. If he'd known that he might have taken a different approach to the dragon a couple years before. Hermione should have known that. It wasn't like he was going to run into a dragon everyday, but it'd sure be a good thing to know. "But they roar, and snort, I never heard them hissing."

"Did you _try_ to talk to them?" Tonks said, smirking.

"No," Harry repeated. It had never even occurred to him. They weren't snakes, why would they be able to speak Parselmouth? "I mean, no, I never tried. Are you sure that people could... I mean, you don't really think they could talk do you?"

After Harry had finally gotten out what he'd meant to say Tonks patted him on the head. "Well, it's what _I_ figure anyway. I don't know anyone other than you that speaks Parselmouth, in fact I don't think there's been one in a good two hundred years."

"Aren't they a bit more like lizards?" Harry asked, as it suddenly occurred to him that dragons were more like huge lizards.

"Dunno," Tonks shrugged again. "Ever tried speaking to a lizard in Parseltongue?"

"No," Harry shook his head. "Do you think they speak Parseltongue too?"

But before Tonks could answer the curtain moved again and Emily appeared quietly on the other side of the room. Her eyes were wide, and Harry suspected she had heard more than a little part of the conversation. If she knew anything about the Triwizard tournament, or about him, she'd probably be able to figure out who he was.

"Anyway," Tonks continued, paying no mind as Emily used her wand on some material in the room. "One of the layers –dragon's hide usually – is the inner layer. It's usually brushed and smoothed out so it's very comfortable. The outer layer is made of Graphorn's hide, not nearly as thin or comfortable. But it's a lot like dragon's hide, repels a good deal of curses. Not the same mind you, that's why they're used in conjunction. Between both the hides not many of the weaker spells get through at all and the strong one's are not quite as damaging."

Emily moved forward, again and she disappeared through another door that wasn't headed to the front, this door was much closer to them. "The reason they've got to be measured specifically for you is that they're custom fitted so that they fit you exactly like as if it was part of your skin in most areas. They'll have to add a few more yards of it with a special spell so that it grows to you, but you'll have to be getting a new set by the time you're finished growing."

"Are the expensive?" Harry asked, suddenly feeling that the money he'd brought wouldn't be enough.

Tonks shook her head. "Don't worry about it; I've got your robes covered."

When Emily came back, she had several robes in her hand. A slip of paper sat on top and Tonks took the sheet while Harry took the robes. Emily nodded and smiled, taking them from him one by one and folding them, placing them into a bag for Harry.

"How long will this take?" Tonks questioned Emily after she'd finished making some marks on the paper.

"The special order robes will be ready in three days. We'll have the shipment of materials tomorrow to finish it up, and it'll take some time to do the specialization," came a voice from the door in the front. The first lady, the one that had looked at them oddly, was standing there. "Emily can't speak, so it's no use to ask her questions. She hasn't been able to since her parents died three years ago."

Harry looked over to Emily and saw that she had the saddest eyes suddenly. It was as if that something inside her eyes had drooped. He frowned and suddenly felt sorry for her, but he couldn't say anything. "Come on," Tonks said, taking Harry's hand.

"How'll you be paying?" the attendant asked quickly. Harry just pulled out his moneybag.

Tonks stopped him however. She dropped a slip of paper on the counter and waited while the attendant read it. That seemed to be the end of it.

"Come on then Harry," Tonks continued, taking Harry's hand again and pulling him along with her.

Outside Tonks found a bench and handed Harry his letter from Hogwarts, which she'd been holding until now. Harry wasn't sure why she'd kept it hidden until now, but she had informed him she'd had it.

He went over the list quickly, not paying all the much attention. The list was pretty standard, and Harry just pocketed it when he was done, he'd need it for when he began purchasing things. What was behind it was more interesting, he hadn't forgotten his OWLs completely, they just stayed at the back of his mind most of the time.

Ministry of Magic  
Wizarding Examinations Office

Dear Mr. Potter,

We have the pleasure to inform you that the results to your Ordinary Wizarding Level exams have been tallied.

The Ordinary Wizarding Levels, henceforth called O.W.L.s, are graded on an academic curve, in order to fit the constant and necessary evolution of teacher and student capabilities. This grading process is a protocol which the ministry has adhered to for a century and any questions to the validity may be addressed to Herman Gradgin, Wizarding Examinations Office.

The results for the O.W.L.s are available at the Wizarding Examination Office in the Ministry of Magic because of their great importance. Those with sufficient reason may view them at any time. Should you want these results made confidential please reply to this post at any time.

Attached is a copy of the notes taken during tests, if any were taken. Due to restrictions and security precautions any written examinations are not returned. Any questions regarding scores can be addressed to Bertrude Filtarr, Wizarding Examinations Office.

Please read the attached results carefully. These results are important to witches and wizards, playing a vital role in future prospects and decisions. We encourage you to begin preparation for the N.E.W.T.s which will take place at the end of your seventh year. Enjoy your summer.

Yours Sincerely,

Griselda Marchbanks

Head of the Wizarding Examinations Authority

Harry struggled, as he looked at the results at the end of the note. If he was getting his results based on other members of his year then he hoped he didn't do so badly in potions. He needed an Outstanding in Potions to get into the N.E.W.T Potions course. He really wanted to be an Auror, and if it meant dealing with Snape for another two years he hoped he'd be able to bear it. Hermione would be there at least, even if Ron didn't make it.

Your grades are as follows

O, Outstanding - E, Exceeding Expectation - A, Acceptable - P, Poor - D, Dreadful

You must receive an A (Acceptable) to get an OWL. One OWL is available per exam (1 written, 1 practical in most classes)

Astronomy: Overall Grade - P - Written: P Practical: P

Care of Magical Creatures: Overall Grade - O - Written: E Practical: O

Charms: Overall Grade - E - Written: E Practical: E

Defense Against Dark Arts: Overall Grade - O - Written: O Practical: O

Divination: Overall Grade - P - Written: P Practical: P

Herbology: Overall Grade - E - Written: A Practical: E

History of Magic: Overall Grade - P - Written: P

Potions: Overall Grade - E - Written: E Practical: E

Transfiguration: Overall Grade - E - Written: E Practical: E

According to testing criteria you have received 12 O.W.L.s

Harry choked and frowned. Twelve O.W.L.s? That wasn't right, but it seemed that was correct. If he'd gotten twelve O.W.L.s how was it the Fred and George, who were quite adept with some particulars because of the way the worked with potions and strange charms all the time, had received four. Percy, the prefect, had gotten twelve O.W.L.s. If Harry had gotten twelve how did Hermione fare?

It occurred to him that even though he'd done better than he thought in potions, he hadn't gotten a grade good enough to get into Snape's class next year. He wondered if he could ever be anything else. Wood had gone into Quidditch, maybe he could do that.

"Come on Harry," Tonks said hopping up. "It can't be that bad."

Stunned Harry looked up to Tonks' grinning face and he couldn't do anything but smile along with her. "That's better," she said smiling brighter. "They can't be as bad as you think."

"No," Harry said quietly. "I didn't get an Outstanding in potions, so I won't get into Snape's class. It means I can't be an Auror."

"Why's that?"

"I need potions to become an Auror," Harry said sadly.

"Well..." Tonks said, stepping back, and looking at him funny. "It's better than having a NEWT in History of Magic, but it's not a requirement. Besides, if you work at it I'm sure that you could take the NEWT test even without taking the class, you'd just have to do a lot of studying on your own."

Blinking, Harry thought about what she was saying. He wouldn't mind taking lessons from Hermione, if she was up to it. But knowing her, she'd have taken as many classes as she'd done the previous year and she barely managed those. McGonagall had sworn she'd help him become an Auror though; maybe she'd have some ideas. He'd have to talk to her about what he could do.

"The Apothecary next then," Tonks announced, dragging Harry behind her once more. Harry didn't resist but he wondered how he'd know what he was going to need.

Inside the local apothecary Harry purchased a whole new set of supplies. Tonks made things easy, announcing he was starting the NEWT potions class and he had forgotten his list so he wasn't sure what he'd need. The attendant didn't care; he was running around instantly, collecting supplies.

Once Harry had paid for everything, getting a new set of cauldrons as well, he walked out with a huge bag filled to the brim with supplies for potions. Tonks had also insisted (to the attendant) that Harry get everything he might possibly use. Which ended up being a lot more than he thought he'd need.

"Alright, let's get your books. There's a few more you need to get if you're going to be studying to be an Auror though."

They collected the books at the store, getting three more than what was asked for on the list, and then went to pay for their order. The attendant in this shop was young and he looked over the books, stopping on the last one and snorted. "Want to be an Auror eh?" he asked as if it were some great joke.

Harry just nodded but the attendant didn't stop. His eyes, which had looked over Harry and Tonks with disgust, connected with Harry's eyes. "Don't think you've got what it takes, might as well give it up now."

"Hey!" Tonks growled next to Harry. "You're job's to sell us books. What's the total?"

The boy's eyes broke contact from Harry and roamed over Tonks again, settling on her chest. "Don't think you've got much of a career as an Auror either. Though, I could think of some things you'd be good at."

A deep seated rage suddenly filled Harry, and he almost reached out and grabbed the boy by the neck. He didn't like it that the boy was making fun of Tonks and trying to flirt with her.

"Sly," Tonks said quietly. "Keep calm, this boy isn't worth a Knut. If we get into trouble again I don't think we'll be able to slip out of it as easy. My brothers out of the country on assignment, he can't just slip us through the cracks so easy this time. I know you don't like the kid, but he's really not worth it, please don't kill him."

The attendant's mouth opened, and then shut. He turned from Tonks back to Harry, fear in his eyes. It took Harry a minute, but he caught on to Tonks' game. She'd done this a lot and he was growing to like them. "Can't we just break a few bones?" He growled. His wand appearing in his hand so quickly the attendant took a step backwards. "Or cut off a finger, my collection isn't as big as it used to be. That stupid woman I live with likes to sneak them away one by one when I'm not looking."

After another gaping look, mouth opening and closing the attendant quickly wrote the total down for Harry. After they'd paid and left the store Harry turned to Tonks grinning. "Why do you always play games like that?" Harry asked as Tonks tripped over a bench. He almost laughed, but instead dropped his bags and grabbed her before she fell to the ground.

"Why are you always tripping over things?" Harry questioned after he'd picked his bags back up and they were headed towards Dervish and Bangs to get more equipment.

There was no answer even after Harry had collected the rest of his items and they headed back towards the Hogs Head, where they had a room. In fact, after Harry had questioned Tonks there were no words spoken between them at all, not for almost two hours. They'd gotten back to the room and Harry was examining the new trunk when Tonks finally did speak.

"Dumbledore wants you to go to Hogwarts tomorrow. It's still a week before school starts, but he would rather have you there than anywhere else. He's making the necessary arrangements right now."

•


	14. Return to Hogwarts

Chapter 14

• Return to Hogwarts •

"After tonight we wont be able to do this," Tonks said as she held Harry a little tighter.

It was the same thought Harry was having. He had gotten to know Tonks so well in the past few months that he almost felt more comfortable sleeping with her at his side than sleeping alone. He never thought he'd feel that way.

Struggling about what to say, Harry pulled her arm closer. "I know," he whispered. "You're going to still come and teach me things sometimes right? Like on Hogsmeade's weekends or weekends you can get off?"

"Yeah, I'll come to the castle as much as I can. I'm sure I could pose as some giggling schoolgirl and never even be noticed."

"Not if you're around me." Harry said sadly. "Everyone always knows what goes on around me."

There was a silence that followed his comment, and Harry could hear Tonks thinking. He didn't prefer to talk about himself, especially if this was the last night. "I'm going to miss everything," he whispered. "The broom races and the games. It was fun to learn Auror tricks, and I wish we could do more."

"Yeah," Tonks said distantly. "Going back to the island was interesting."

Harry thought about the island, the forever grinning Darrian, Riana and Korina. He shivered when he thought about Korina and shoved the memory from his mind, he didn't want to remember the night he'd spent with her. There was Jack, which he wondered if he'd could play it again anytime soon. No one apparated in Hogwarts grounds so he was sure that he couldn't do it here.

Something came to mind when he thought about the island. A word Darrian explanation Tonks had given him, a word that meant nothing to him. "Tonks?" he asked. "What is Viatorian?"

There was a quick intake of breath and Harry could hear her heart beating faster. She did restrain from an immediate response though. "Harry?" she asked. "Do you know what the Mafia is?"

It was an odd question. He'd heard the word mafia before, Vernon had used it a great deal a few years prior, when there was a scandal within Grunnings, the company he worked for. Apparently one of the managers within the company had ties to the mafia and had been using the company to launder money. The whole thing had made Vernon seriously nervous, but the company had come through and since it wasn't in Vernon's department he'd had little to do with it.

"A gang?" Harry asked tentatively. He was sure it was some sort of large illegal gang. Vernon had never offered a full explanation

Tonks giggled. "That's a bit of an understatement," she said, rolling Harry so that he was facing her. He didn't resist.

"The Mafia is a very old group of organized crime originating in Italy. Several countries have different forms of it. This group is secretive and powerful, holding a great deal of sway in politics. They also have a lot of money. If muggles have such powerful groups it is obvious that something like that would grow in the magical world as well."

Harry just stared at her. Of course there were bad gangs in the magical world, Voldemort and his DE were one of them.

"There's a group that controls a large portion of the wizarding world through it's influence, though not so much in England, but in other countries. They're very secretive and few people know much about them. There are of course rumors that spread, as with all things, but most of them are fantasy."

"This group is very careful about their dealings, rarely coming out into the open. In order to join the group you must meet certain prerequisites. They never approach people without a very good understanding of the person. But, somehow a long time ago, I was approached."

She paused, rubbing her inner arm unconsciously. "I was a bit of a rebel then, a black dragon in the family. I had gone to Hogwarts for a couple of years but decided I didn't like it there so I went to my aunts on Icaria for a summer and decided I'd rather stay there than go back. I took schooling there some of the time, but mostly I got into a gang and we played games with the tourists to cheat them out of their money. You got a taste of the sort of thing I did, meeting Darrian and his group. Back then I was even worse."

"My aunt died while I was there, and no one even knew I'd had an aunt. I spent very little time at her place until after she died, and I took it over after that. I was only fifteen but I was smart and never told anyone what had happened. By that time I had gained quite a reputation on the street. No one knew exactly who I really was, they didn't know how old I was or what I really looked like. I wasn't the best with my abilities then, but I could change my face pretty well."

"I even had a name on the street," she paused for a second and smiled blandly. "They called my Nymph. That's all anyone ever knew me by. I was the best and everyone knew it."

"My parents wrote me constantly, trying to find out where I was. It hadn't taken them all that long to figure out my aunt had died. She quit writing them about me, and they got scared. When they showed up to find me they were met with someone who had taken over my aunts house and didn't know me at all. So all they could do was go back home. My parents knew I had metamorph abilities, but didn't realize I was able to change into different people. No one in the family had ever had the abilities and no one was quite sure how much I could do."

Tonks stopped for a minute and pulled the covers back, slipping out of bed. Harry had a chance to think about what she was saying. Sometimes he wished he could run away and go to a place like Icaria. His aunt and uncle wouldn't come and look for him though, they'd be glad to be rid of him.

Tonks poured a glass of water from the pitcher and after drinking it returned to bed. It didn't look as if she'd needed the water, but rather to get up and think about things for a minute.

"When I was first approached I didn't even realize it. Someone gave me a tip about a pair or tourists on vacation and I played games with them until I finally swindled them out of most of their money. The person returned after I was done with the couple, they weren't really tourists, they'd just been testing me. Apparently I passed."

"You hear about powerful people on the streets, about people that can make things happen, but I never thought I'd meet on of them. I was just a street bum who was good at what I did. So, when they approached me with an offer to be tested further and see if I was good enough to become a Viatorian I was ecstatic. If I became one of them then I'd have money and power – I didn't know the consequences. So, I accepted the next test."

She closed her eyes for a minute, reliving the moment. When she opened them again she found it hard to break eye contact with Harry. She was quite ashamed of what had transpired after she had joined, but had told herself that she would not lie to Harry about it if he asked.

"Because they were a very elite group I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but I'd been on my own for long enough to know I could hold my own and I was confident. The group knew things about me though, more than anyone else I knew on the island. They didn't know where I'd really come from though, which is what saved me in the end. And they didn't know my true face either – no one did."

"So, I was given a task to perform, along with rigid guidelines about using magic. In fact, my wand was confiscated so that I could not use it while I was on the mission. I was transported to a large city in Mexico, and charged with entering into a house and stealing a mask that was important to the group. At first it was hard, I was just dropped there without knowing anyone or having any grasp of the language. It didn't take long for me to make friends in the street, but it took me a full week to get some slim grasp of the language."

"After that it wasn't very difficult. The house was large and well guarded, but it had some easy ways in. A lot of things could have gone wrong, and even though I was able to get in a lot of things did go wrong. It took another week to get into the house, but I got in as a..." her voice faltered for a moment. "_puta_," she paused again, trying to make up her mind.

"It wasn't the best way in, but it got me in. So, I was able to retrieve the mask and get out."

"When I finally made it back to a place I was told to deliver it to someone waiting for me. They liked my work. I was offered a position in the order, as an apprentice – but it was still something. I didn't even hesitate to say yes, after everything I'd done I was excited that I might be able to do more things like that. I was returned to the island and my training began."

"Some of the training was in a normal school, they influenced my teachers and I received a transfer with top marks. They never let them drop though, I was put under a very harsh study and training schedule. I did other things, stuff on the island mostly, and I began to understand what I'd gotten myself into. There was a person, someone I knew, who I delivered to the order to be tested. He passed the first test, I knew he would, he was quite good at swindling. But during the second test something happened and he failed and returned empty handed... I never saw him again."

Again she paused, and Harry could see her pushing back tears. The person had meant a lot to her and it was difficult for her to relive the choices she'd made, the things that had happened. It wasn't just the one boy either, but at the moment that was enough to get the point across.

"After that I came to understand exactly what the group was willing to do to gain and keep power. I did more too, things that I will dread for the rest of my life. I was still a good student though, and they liked me a lot. No one was going to let me leave the order – it was an unspoken rule. No one leaves the order except in death."

Harry hadn't spoken a word since the story had started, he was letting her tell it, but he felt something stir in him, something that didn't sit right. "If they're such a powerful gang how come I've never heard of them?" It was a stupid question and he knew it. If _Hermione_ hadn't heard of them that might be different, but she wasn't around and he certainly wasn't going to owl her about it.

"In England things are different. Because the ministry has put up a strong opposition to the group, they've gone into hiding, they have not made any official appearances in over two centuries around here. They still have the sway though, I know, I saw them do thing that were horrible here as well as other places."

"There was a woman, someone I knew from before, who came to me one day. I was a little surprised, the woman knew my past and had never revealed it. I didn't even know she'd come to the island, but she was there and I suddenly had a friend who was willing to help me. I trusted her a lot, and eventually we discovered a way to escape. I left and she was able to make sure that it looked as if I'd died. They never found out I really didn't die but I never wanted to go back because they might find out. You don't just _leave_ them because they make sure that it's permanent."

Harry shivered, he had a pretty good idea what she had meant by that and he really didn't want to know anymore about it.

He nodded and then closed his eyes. "So you came back home to get away from them?"

"After being gone for two years my mum was willing to forgive everything when I walked back in. Dad was a little wary, but let it drop. So I went back to Hogwarts. It was the middle of my sixth year, and I had gone a little astray of my teachings but I was able to take my O.W.L.s and get top marks because of my training. After that everything just sort of happened, after getting high marks on my N.E.W.T.s I tried to decide what to do. My mum suggested I go into the Aurors."

Harry smiled and remembered what she'd been like the year before. "Which is the reason you met me."

Tonks smiled back. "Yeah," she said. "I guess sometimes things go better than you'd expected."

"You said you almost failed the Stealth and Tracking as an Auror. I wanted to know why, I mean, I know you're clumsy, but you have your metamorph abilities, how did you almost fail?"

She laughed. "Harry stealth was not a test to follow someone, it was a test to see if I could get across a room without tripping any alarms, there wasn't a single person involved. And tracking, well, it's a bit difficult in a muggle city with hundreds of people around you at all times. You can't use magic openly or be obviously following someone. I did alright, but the only reason I passed was because the tests had a combined overall score. I did well on everything else though."

"What about flying?" Harry asked, remembering her odd ability to take extraordinary turns and move like Harry'd never seen.

"Well see..." she smiled again. "When you can shape your body any way you like you can change a lot of things to make you more aerodynamic. Mass and weight are the key, if two brooms raced and one was unmanned while the other was controlled by a wizard, which do you think would win the race? That is, if the unmanned one was controlled by someone and could move as fast as it was designed for."

"The unmanned one," Harry replied, and then understood. "You can make yourself _lighter?_"

"Well it's not that simple, I can but I loose things, muscle mass and bones, that sort of thing. If I'm flying I have to make sure that I have enough strength to move the broom around and that I can stay alive with the wind that's whipping against me. I used to do it when I felt the need to get away from everything. They knew of course, but never could figure out who I was. I kept changing players."

"The main person I played as was Seonaidh though, and I got famous fast so I had to quit. There were some questions about how I was doing things that the judges thought were impossible. They thought I was cheating somehow, which I guess I was, but they never could figure out how. _Here_ people aren't tested when they enter the races. But in order to get on a Quidditch team you have a thorough background check and physical tests. I could never pass them because I have metamorphmagus abilities."

"Actually," she paused for a second, her mind lost in thought. "I don't thing anyone with animagus abilities is allowed to play either. It's easier to hide the ability sometimes, but a thorough healer can find traces of it in your system. See, having animagus abilities can sometimes boost your abilities and that would make it unfair for other players. It doesn't happen all the time, but sometimes, it depends on how compatible you are with your animagus. I don't know much about it. Dumbledore would know ..." she stopped as Harry's face hardened.

"I know," she said, sounding if she could read Harry's mind, "but he does mean for the best. Sometimes I think that he really should understand that nothing goes as planned no matter how hard you try."

Harry didn't answer immediately and she fell silent as well, finally turning away from him when she couldn't bear looking into his pained eyes anymore. It took a while, but she managed to get him to slip an arm around her and pull close again. Both were thinking silently to themselves about what was coming, Harry more on what was going to happen tomorrow while Tonks was thinking further ahead.

"Harry," Tonks said quietly after they'd been laying there for a good hour without speaking. Harry felt an odd sensation pass down him, but he chose not to speak, instead feigning sleep. "If you're awake I just wanted to let you know something. I think that I..." she paused briefly, loosing the will it seemed. Harry couldn't breath, he couldn't move what he thought she might be saying was almost too much even for him to just lay there and listen to. "...that I never want to let you go," she continued finally, squeezing Harry tighter against her. He couldn't help it and pulled her arm tighter against him sighing.

•

There was no great ruckus when the doors opened. Harry was not given a horseless carriage to take. He and Tonks walked, the trunks floating behind them, to Hogwarts over the usual path that they took when returning from Hogsmeade.

In fact, other than the echoing of the door as it banged closed, the castle sounded amazingly empty. It was almost as if there were no other living things there at all.

They were only alone for a minute. It was not however anyone Harry wanted to see. "_Snape,_" Harry growled under his breath. He couldn't help it, he hadn't planned on coming to Hogwarts to be with Snape. In fact, he hated it that Snape was there at all.

"What do _you_ want?" Harry asked as the greasy haired teacher approached.

A furious smirk flashed on his face, but it was gone almost as quick replaced by his typical sneer. "Nymphadora you are no longer needed. Leave. And don't go and trip over the stairs, we wouldn't want Filch to have to clean up the blood," he said snidely, fingering his wand. He seemed to want to do something more to her but couldn't bring himself to do it.

Tonks took one last moment to squeeze Harry's hand before dropping it and then releasing the spells on Harry's trunk. "Be careful Harry," she whispered before looking up at Snape irritably and giving him a huge grin. "Have a good evening Snivellus," she said quietly, but loud enough for Snape to hear.

He fumed and his wand rose, but then he clenched his teeth and dropped it again. It looked as if it were taking ever ounce of strength not to curse her.

After the door had closed behind Tonks, Harry immediately wished that she had stayed. He hated being in this castle alone, and it was even worse that Snape was here. Hopefully he would disappear as soon as Harry had his things into his room. Harry wasn't even sure what Snape wanted, he hadn't gotten a response to the question.

"Follow me Potter," Snape growled, turning and heading up the hallway. Harry turned back to his trunks and started to perform a levitation charm on them, but as soon as they lifted into the air they fell flat again, Snape having blocked it. "You won't be needing those until later. Someone will take them to the tower for you."

Harry gaped at Snape, he was being even harsher than usual. Bambi was in one of those trunks and even though he doubted that the small drop would have hurt her he couldn't check because Snape would surely take her away.

"Move," Snape growled furious that Harry hadn't taken another step forward.

When Harry had finally taken a step forward, with a last glance at his trunks, he easily caught up to Snape even with his quick pace. "Where are we going?" Harry asked as nicely as possible. Snape wasn't exactly the easiest person to talk to.

There was no immediate comment, but Harry knew that they were headed in the direction of his room. "Are we going to Dumbledores office? I have some things I'd like to talk to him about."

Still no comment. Snape was either ignoring him purposefully or simply because he could. Harry didn't care either way, he just needed to speak to Dumbledore. If he was going to start using the Pensieve, he might as well start now, when nothing else was around to distract him. He also needed to discuss getting Occlumency lessons so that he could be around Tonks.

The arrived at the stone gargoyle and Snape muttered the password, trying to do it so that Harry could not hear, but Harry still caught the two words, _Everlasting Gobstoppers_. The gargoyle jumped out of the way revealing the ever moving staircase and Harry began to step onto it.

It was then that Snape decided to speak again. "School may not be in session at this time," he snarled. "But you _will_ refer to me as Professor or Sir. Do you understand Potter?"

Smirking, Harry stepped onto the moving steps and then, just before he disappeared, as the gargoyle was moving back he smiled. "Yes sir, _Professor_ Snivellus."

There was an angry remark but Harry didn't catch it all. He wasn't sure exactly what it had been, but he was sure it hadn't been something he would have wanted to hear. It came as a surprise to Harry that he didn't open the door and bound up the stairs, wand in hand. Harry would have liked to have had a reason to jinx him.

At the top of the stairs Harry knocked softly on the door, but entered immediately, believing Dumbledore would be expecting him if Snape had brought him here.

No one was in the office though. Fawkes sat on his perch, glistening beautifully in the light that entered the room. "Hello Fawkes," Harry said softly, taking a moment to stroke his beautiful feather coat. Fawkes chirped softly as Harry petted him.

He looked around, finding the room extremely familiar. The silver instruments whirring softly, emitting almost purring sounds. Harry turned his attention to the sorting hat. It would be used soon, and Harry wondered if it had created a song for this year, and if it had, what it would be like.

Harry looked to the portraits, a few of them were asleep, a few were missing, but a good number of them were staring down at him. He looked to one in particular, Phineas Nigellus. He wasn't there at all. Harry wasn't sure if it was because he'd just come in or because Phineas was visiting some other portrait.

"Harry!" Dumbledore said from a stairwell to the rear of his office. Harry had seen him come from it more than once, but never been there. Dumbledore seemed to be more than just a little happy which made Harry wary. "Please, come up here, I've got something I need to discuss with you."

Up the stairs, Harry found he was in a library of sorts. He was distracted for a minute, his eyes traveling along the titles of many of the books. Some of them really caught Harry's eye, and he wondered if later on Dumbledore might let him borrow a few. His mind fell back into place and he remembered that there were other things he needed to talk to Dumbledore about. Quidditch for one, he wanted to make sure that he was no longer banned – though he wasn't really worried about it. Then there was the DA. While he knew that none of the decrees were in effect anymore, but he still wanted to make sure that it was alright with Dumbledore to reform the DA.

"Harry, please sit down, there is only a few minute of time that we can use this potion," Dumbledore said, catching Harry buried in his thoughts.

Turning quickly Harry saw that there was a mug of potion on a table in the room being heated by a blue flame. "Potion?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes Harry," Dumbledore said quietly. "In light of the happenings of last year I buried myself in research, trying to determine a way to severe the connection you and Voldemort have." He paused, and Harry suddenly felt angry. Dumbledore no longer trusted him even to try and learn Occlumency, he was trying to do it without Harry's permission.

"Unfortunately there is little research on scars that connect two people and none on yours because, as you know, you were the first person on record to have ever survived the Avada Kedavra curse."

Of course, Harry though bitterly, he was special, so it didn't matter how much Dumbledore looked up – he wouldn't be able to find anything that would help him anyway.

Dumbledore didn't seem to see Harry's thoughts even though they were written plainly on his face, and continued. "After a thorough investigation into every possible approach, whether current spells, old magic, or magic only being experimented on, I found one spell that could possibly help," he paused and leaned forward, stirring the potion on the table.

"You've already felt its affects, staying in the room in Hogsmeade. It has also been placed on this room. I have tried the castle, but it appears to be just too vast to accommodate such a spell. This room has also been placed under it. I know that the spell doesn't last long, a few days at most, but I have placed it here so that we may be able to communicate without the intrusion of Voldemort."

"You've begun having nightmares again, haven't you?" Dumbledore asked quietly. Even though Harry knew he expected and answer Harry also knew that Dumbledore knew the truth.

"Not until just a few nights ago."

"Just around the time of your birthday?" Dumbledore prodded him, trying to get a very specific answer. Harry hated that he knew, and wondered if Tonks had told him. She certainly hadn't mentioned anything to him about hearing it.

Harry nodded absent mindedly while he thought about them.

"As I thought," Dumbledore said, his eyes dimmer than their usual twinkling self. Harry suddenly wondered if Tonks had told him anything. He didn't seem to be taking this from some fact he knew, but was speculating it all.

"Before your birthday," Dumbledore continued, "the two of you were far enough away from each other that the connection did not bother you. When Tonks took you away that stretched the connection to its limits. A few days prior to your return Voldemort left the country to seek out some... acquaintances, and only returned two days prior to your birthday."

The question of who the 'acquaintances' were was already on the tip of Harry's tongue, but he did not as it, Dumbledore would not tell him if he was already avoiding it.

"Around that time I devised another way to prevent Voldemorts intrusion on your mind. It depended a great deal on me being able to have close contact with you so I had to determine how well the blocking spell worked. Since it is very old magic I did not have any idea of how it would work. That is why you stayed at the room in Hogsmeade these past few days, in order for me to study it. Unfortunately, it breaks down rather quickly, a few days at most, but it is enough time to do what I needed. I trust you had no odd dreams while staying at Hogsmeade?"

This time Harry didn't nod immediately. There had been an odd dream, but he knew that it certainly hadn't had anything to do with Voldemort and anything he wanted. Rather, it was about Tonks, whip cream, strawberries, and some other sweets. It hadn't been a typical dream for him, but on the other hand he was _not_ going to tell Dumbledore about that dream.

"No," Harry finally said, "not something that could have had anything to do with Voldemort."

Accepting the answer without question, Dumbledore continued. "Since I have found no way to block the attacks easily, the spell I used on the rooms is extremely complex; I decided to look for alternative ways of helping. It was then that I thought of another way. Occlumency is still the only known way in which I can help, so I began researching another possibility. If I were to transfer over memories of Occlumency, of rigorous training, then you should be able to learn from them instead of taking the normal route. After a good deal of research on my part I found that there was no record of anyone every trying such a spell. I do, however, believe it is quite plausible."

The idea wasn't completely ludicrous, Harry thought that it actually sounded like something that would likely work – but there was a problem with it. "But if you give some of your memories to me will you be able to remember what it is that you've given me?"

"Ah," Dumbledore said, smiling again. "You've spotted the predicament. There is however a way to overcome this difficulty. I have spent every available moment relearning Occlumency again. So, when I transfer over those specific memories I well still have the knowledge within me."

Harry understood that as well, but it wasn't something that comforted him, if Dumbledore did transfer over the memories what exactly would he be receiving? He looked at the potion that he was being asked to drink and he shivered. It looked like a pudding gone wrong, it was far from thin and runny like most of the potions, it was thick and chunky almost like soup – but from the foul smell there could be no mistaking that it was a potion.

"If I choose to do this," Harry began to ask, not giving a clear yes or no, he wanted to know more about it. "What exactly is going to happen? And what does the potion have to do with it? You said it was a spell." As he asked he prodded the top of the potion warily. It jumped out at his finger, trying to engulf it. Harry pulled back, startled, but when he turned to Dumbledore all he saw was a hearty smile.

"This potion is used to place the mind in a deep state of meditation. It has some extreme ingredients in it to help calm the mind, and even some poisons. We are lucky to have a potions master who can brew it," he said, and pointed to a scroll sitting on the table. Harry glanced at it, but turned back to Dumbledore, not really interested, he wanted to know what was going to happen exactly. The idea of being put into a state of deep meditation didn't mean much to him.

"You'll be awake in a sense, but your mind will be completely relaxed. You'll likely be able to do little in this state, and are very susceptible to outside influences – which is why I have protected the room so cautiously. I need you in this state so that when I transfer over memories they will not be rejected. I cannot afford to loose such memories if this does not work the first time."

After looking back to the potion (this time resisting the urge to poke it) Harry nodded. If this could help him learn Occlumency faster, then he was all for it. He reached over to pick up the but Dumbledore stopped him.

"There is one other thing," Dumbledore said before letting Harry drink. Harry stopped, his resolve faltering a little bit, he hated additions. "Since these memories are my memories and there's no mold to do this by, I am afraid I'm not sure how organized they will be. They may be incoherent, and even so much so that they make no sense. I doubt this possibility, but if this does not work it is only a small amount of time lost."

Though it wasn't something that was a huge difference Harry had to rethink taking it. Then he realized that it wouldn't matter if he did get some of the images jumbled, they shouldn't affect the rest of his memories. He nodded one last time and then quickly drained the mug trying to ignore the taste, but having a hard time with the texture. It almost felt as if he'd eaten life worms and they were wriggling down his throat.

Immediately Dumbledore stood again. "Please try not to think," he said, looking over Harry.

Harry had a hard time answering. The taste was so atrocious that Harry could barely breathe, let alone form words. He suppressed the urge to throw up and tried to sit up. Dumbledore shook his head. "You may rest here while I make the necessary preparations."

It felt as if the room swirled about, twisting and turning until it made him feel sick again. Even as he was laying down it felt as if he were standing up. Everything around him gained a slight fuzz to its edges, as if he were obscured through a sheet of ice. The walls disappeared, the floor disappeared, and it was as if the emptiness went on forever. The stretch between the couch Harry lay on and the table the seemed to sit on nothing had grown from just an arm stretch to miles.

Dumbledore returned again, not long afterwards, but the time passed strangely in Harry's mind. When Dumbledore approached his face, and the twinkling eyes, seemed oddly contorted. The disarmingness of it seemed to have disappeared and he looked like a clown, his hair making him even more laughable.

Finally Dumbledore took his seat on the table, pulling his wand from within his cloak. He seemed odd, and even in Harry's state he could tell that Dumbledore had not rested in a long time. His eyes, even though they twinkled, had dark bags under them. He whispered a spell, but to Harry it was obscured and much more like a squeak. Harry had barely enough sense to listen to it at all.

Then, the world change again, the time changed again and, as if Harry were in a memory, Harry saw himself laying on the couch. It was odd, staring at himself, even odder than when he had traveled in time. It felt just like he'd entered into a Pensieve of what was currently happening.

He was laying there, on the couch, one arm had fallen from his chest and was hanging down. The other was across his stomach, as if it were holding in the bile he was still trying to hold down. Dumbledore was sitting over him, staring down, with a mild smile. He tapped his wand to his head, whispering something mutely, and then pulled it away. A long stream of silver liquid slowly slipped from his head, as if there were an invisible hole it came from.

At first it was a thin string, silver and liquid like. It quivered slightly, as if it were trying to stay in place, but then snapped like a rubber band and hung from the wand like a plump silver snail that stretched bobbed a little with the slightest wand movement.

Then, a few seconds after it was completely exposed to the air, it began to shrink, as if it were drying up. However, after it had decreased to half its size Dumbledore moved his wand to Harry's head, tapping it with the attached silver strand. The strand, which had seemed to be almost dried out, burst to life again, easily taking it's previous plump form. After it had finally filled again, it slowly slid, as if there were another invisible hole, into Harry's head.

After repeating the process two dozen times, Dumbledore finally sat down, looking weak, and Harry felt sick again. He opened his eyes to find that he was still lying on the couch, but the room was normal again. Dumbledore was in a chair across from him, and he was making light wheezing sounds. It seemed he had fallen asleep.

The throbbing in Harry's head ebbed almost as quickly as he had awoken from the dream like state, and he sat up straight balancing himself. He heard Fawkes making a cooing sound and a rush of memories knocked him to the ground, it was as if someone had pounded them into his head with a jack hammer. Little of it made sense, and none of it seemed to be anything pertaining to Occlumency.

At first there was a memory of running from a rickety old horse carriage that was out of control. No one was at the wheel, nor was a horse pulling it, but it seemed to be chasing Harry all along the dirt roads and even followed him off until he'd run through a stream where it was stopped dead.

Then there was a flash of an incident with a milkman. He had been jinxing the floor mat to sweep out under the one's foot when the stepped on it, but the milkman had surprised him and walked away with orange hair. It wasn't purposeful, and he hadn't even been using his wand at the time, but Harry found it extremely funny.

It wasn't his emotions though, it was a memory, and Harry knew it wasn't his memory, but everything was there, the smell of the morning air, the ripple of the wind as it rushed passed him, the startled feeling of someone coming up on him. It was odd, having memories that weren't his own. They were so vivid, even more vivid than anything he remembered himself. What was the most disturbing was that he felt as if he were the person in the memory, it wasn't like seeing another's memories, they had become his own and for all intents and purposes he had been there and done it. He'd been the one to jinx the milkman and get runoff by the carriage.

There was another, a brief moment between he and another boy, his hair already grayed as if he was old, but his body looking no older than fifteen. He had a devilish smirk that rivaled Snape's in Harry's mind and he seemed to have done something supremely wrong. Harry had helped hide him as two adults had come looking. The boy had been happy, and thought it mildly funny that he hadn't been caught. Harry did not remember what had been done though and so he just ignored the odd feeling of wrongdoing he'd had.

The memories finally faded, the bulk of Harry's headache following suite. When Harry finally pushed them aside and sat up again Fawkes cooed once more and more memories rushed into his mind that moment. This time he fell back on the couch, having just a bit more control over himself before it happened.

There was a dark man, with sallow skin, bit a warm smile, teaching him things. Kerner, that was his name, and he seemed familiar, more than just a memory. His eyes were odd, and Harry could never actually decide on a color. But they sparkled and seemed to catch his attention every time he looked at them. He was patient and understand, but pushed Harry hard to learn.

Day by day he taught Harry, over and over again. They went over each step of the control, the clearing of the mind, the ability to feel an attempted intrusion, and how to block it. It was odd, suddenly finding himself full of memories he didn't have. However, his mind used them moment to moment as he saw them. They integrated themselves in, giving Harry the overwhelming feeling of knowing how to stop an intruder and how to push himself into another mind. He didn't just remember how to use Occlumency, he knew everything there was to know about it, and it was instinctual for him to build a barrier around his mind even before the memories ceased.

Other memories came to him as the Occlumency training continued. Of flying alongside a biplane. Then of a strange car-like vehicle that he gawked over and tried to discover how to use. A beautiful girl in a park, picking flowers with him. Meeting Fawkes for the first time. So many memories were projected into his head that when they finally stopped flowing Harry sat bolt upright, and puked. It was as if he'd been traveling hundreds of miles an hour scenes flashing by him continuously.

When he looked up it was to Dumbledore, who was standing over him, a look of concern on his face.

"Are you alright Harry?" he asked softly.

Nodding, Harry found he was on the couch, his mess all over the floor. "I'm sorry," he said quietly, reaching for his wand to clean it up. Dumbledore smiled brighter but still seemed concerned. Then with a wave of his own the mess was gone. Harry closed his eyes as the rest of the memories faded from his immediate attention. "Yes," he answered, his voice still soft. "I think... I think that it worked."

The concern evaporated instantaneously on Dumbledore's face, replaced by a look of ecstasy. Harry had never come across Dumbledore with such a look. He could do nothing but smile, it wasn't the sort of smile that Dumbledore usually had, but this one made Harry happy just because it existed.

It happened without Harry's knowledge or permission. He was sitting there, his head already pounding, and he didn't see Dumbledore flick his wand that was behind his head. He felt it though, instantly, Dumbledore trying to push into his mind. It wasn't like when Snape had done it, this time Harry _knew_ exactly what was happening and he could feel it as Dumbledore pressed past the newly erected outer barriers of his mind.

Harry gritted his teeth, and focused, his whole mind spiraling around the intrusion. He found a place, an empty place, and there he was, standing in a prairie, rolling hills around him and white clouds drifting lazily overhead. Dumbledore was standing across from him, looking around startled.

"Where is this place?" Dumbledore asked, looking around. "Is it something you remember?"

Harry looked around, and he knew where it was. He remembered being there, riding his broomstick to the lone tree in the far distance. "It's a memory now, I've been here and I haven't. I never owned a Comet 240, but you have, haven't you?"

Dumbledore smiled, remembering some far memory. "It was the fastest broom at the time. I could keep up with the newly design airplanes. Always got myself into trouble though. Mother was always afraid the ministry would remove me from school." Then he paused and he remembered where he was and what was happening. It was as if, before that moment, he had not himself, and unable to control what he said.

The connection broke instantly. "I'm sorry for that Harry," Dumbledore apologized. "I just had to be sure. You've had other memories transferred as well then?" he asked cautiously.

Angrily Harry nodded and stood. "Yes," Harry said angrily. He found that both of his wands were still in there proper place and he didn't want to hang around the office for another minute, what Dumbledore had done to him was more than he wanted to deal with. After stabilizing himself Harry moved quickly to the exit of the office. Dumbledore's opinion of what he should be doing right now didn't matter to him, in fact he was suddenly much angrier with Dumbledore even though he couldn't pinpoint why.

As he marched outside the door the whole world seemed smaller. He hurried down the hall, his robes billowing behind him with the unnatural wind that was associated with the storms. Apparently, even Hogwarts could not withstand them completely.

Snape was waiting for him, as if he knew Harry would be showing up. "I take it the potion worked?" he sneered as Harry turned the corner nearing the common room. Harry didn't answer, but instead ignored Snape completely. "Potter!" he growled as Harry passed by him.

"Professor Snivellus?" Harry asked innocently as he stopped, looking to Snape. "Why don't you go ask the headmaster? I'd rather not speak to you unless I'm required to, and unless my memory serves me wrong I can not get into your class because I only got an E on my Potions O.W.L.s. So, unless you enjoy talking to me I don't plan on speaking to you at all this year."

"I thought, Potter," Snape growled, obviously doing everything he could to maintain composure, "that you would not give up so easily on the juvenile goal of becoming an Auror."

Before he lost his head Harry started to continue past Snape, he didn't want to try and curse him because he knew it wouldn't work out in his favor if he did. Snape had different plans and grabbed a hold of him by the shoulder, but didn't hold it for long, there was a slight popping sound and Snape yanked it back as if he'd just received a terrible burn.

Without noticing what he'd done, Harry turned on Snape. "Well _Sir_ Snivellus, apparently an Auror, even a clumsy one, can get the better of you." He shouted. "I've hard about the little mar on you body. Does it make you feel better, knowing that even a drunken Auror can get the best of you?"

The look Harry received said he'd pushed it to far. In an instant both of the wizards had wands out and curses were shouted. Harry's shield was barely strong enough to repel the body bind curse and it knocked him backwards a few steps. By the time he'd waved his wand to curse Snape again he felt his legs snap together. As he fell he heard another curse muttered and he rolled out of the way, using the moment he had to loose the binding curse.

He ducked behind a nearby statue as yet another curse flew passed him and Harry groaned. Snape was a fully trained wizard, and from what he'd heard Sirius say the previous year, quite adept at curses.

Harry moaned at his snide comment, he hadn't even meant to say it, it had just slipped out. Now he was in a position that was as bad, if not worse, than he'd been in the previous year. He was less afraid of the death eaters than he was of Snape.

"Come on Potter. Show me that legendary Gryffindor bravery," he snarled. Harry shivered, he'd _never_ seen Snape so mad.

Moaning softly at his stupidity, Harry tried to form some sort of idea in his mind. He could really use Hermione right now, she's be able to give him ideas. Or Tonks... and then it came to him, he needed to catch Snape off guard, and Tonks had shown him a way to do it. He hadn't even practiced it yet, but she had shown him how to do it and maybe, just maybe he could.

Breathing slowly, listening for Snapes footsteps, Harry focused, trying to recall the exact incantation. _Se... Se duplicas, duplicus_... Harry repeated the words in his head. The word was at the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't seem to remember the exact incantation.

The sound of Snape's footfalls got Harry thinking more about what was happening at the moment. The hallway was fairly clear, there was the statue he was behind, Gertude the Ghastly. Another one was directly across from it Favion the Ferret who was staring at Gertude with some sort of lustful look. Harry smiled as he flicked his wand.

_"Wingardium Leviosa," _he whispered ever so silently. He was doing he best to keep Snape from hearing what was going on. The statue began to rise but Harry dropped his wand, willing it to stay near the ground. It quit moving, only centimeters above the ground, enough for Harry to see under it. Hopefully Snape hadn't caught the movement.

Still the footfalls came closer, Harry concentrated, his mind split on two separate things, the charm he had cast, and how else he could get away from Snape. There was a secret passage not far, but it was one of the more known ones and Harry was sure Snape would know of it.

He was going to have to face Snape directly.

There was one more step before Harry acted. He moved first, making sure Snape saw it. Then he pulled back again, avoiding the stunning spell that was headed towards him instantly. He concentrated and then, crunching up into a ball sprang into the center of the hall. He located Snape's position and then, with a flick of his wand sent the second statue hurtling towards Snape.

Without waiting to see if the statue struck Snape Harry w already on his feet, headed towards an area he knew better. As he rounded the corner down the hall there was an explosion that rocked the building and he was sire that Favion the Ferret was no more. It didn't matter though, he needed to get to a place where he had an advantage. Ascending the stairs, Harry found himself entering the doorway that led to the third floor hallway and he paused. While Snape wasn't far behind he was still out of site.

_"Se duplici,"_ Harry bellowed, suddenly remembering the incantation that Tonks had told him. From his wand burst a boy who looked like a ghostly Harry. He stood there, smiling but didn't move. Unfortunately Harry didn't know how Tonks had made her duplicate move.

The pounding of Snape's feet caught Harry's attention and he dashed up the hall and into the darkness. Not a single torch lit and Harry found himself hiding in the shadows. Snape slowed as he came to the base of the stairs, seeing Harry just beyond the top. "Do not play games with me Potter," he snarled, taking the steps slowly, his wand held high.

Snape's lip curled as he neared the top of the steps, Harry could see him clearly, his dark eyes focused on the clone. He raised his wand and Harry raised his as well, wondering if the ghost was going to trick Snape for much longer.

It didn't work at all. Snape must have known that it wasn't him, he came rushing up and sent a spell hurtling towards the copy of Harry. But, just before striking, it turned sharply and Harry's eyes widened as it turned directly on him. He'd never seen a spell change direction in mid air and hadn't been expecting it.

"Protego!" Harry shouted as the spell got nearer, but his shield charm was not enough and he felt a warm presence slip over him. It wasn't bad though, and it wasn't as if someone were trying to control him, it was like he was stronger and faster.

It occurred to him that he could beat Snape, all he had to do was bind him. In the shadows it was hard to see a spell unless it was considerably strong, but even an easy petrification curse would hold Snape for a few seconds which would be enough for Harry to place a second, more powerful one upon him. All he had to do was keep the intensity down a little so that it didn't go brightly.

Harry took a step forward so that if he need to fall back he had a step or two before he hit the wall, and then raised his wand.

"Wrong move Potter," he heard Snape say and then he tripped forward, crashing to the ground. The Snape that was standing on the stairs disappeared into thin air and Harry gasped. "You think a silly Aurors trick will work on me?" Snape asked, his voice coming out of seemingly thin air. "I know more about Aurors than you'll ever know Potter. Something like that will not work on me, especially when it's as feeble as it was.

Harry's eyes roamed the corridor, trying to find his wand, it was tottering at the top of the stairwell, ready to begin its descent down.

It wasn't any help to Harry though, as Snape was there suddenly. He didn't move into the position, he just appeared in thin air as if he'd apparated. Harry was dumbstruck, even Tonks couldn't use the invisibility spell on herself. She said that only a few of the Aurors could. The only other person Harry knew could use it was Dumbledore, and he only suspected it, he'd never seen it actually used.

"Apparently that little harlot taught you a few tricks. I wonder if she did other things..." he paused, and evil sneer spreading across his face. "Let's find out, shall we?"

He raised his wand, sealing the door near the bottom of the hallway. It occurred to Harry then that, although Snape and Dumbledore had been the only people he'd seen in the castle, that others might be around. Their scuffle would have caught more than one persons attention.

"_Legilimens!_" Snape barked loudly. Harry was struck hard with the charm, even harder than he had with Dumbledore, and he felt the weight of the charm wash over him. It was difficult, but this time instead of sending himself to some distant place he did not know, he found himself remembering the Cruciatus curse and all the pain. He pushed himself to that place, making it the only memory that Snape could touch, he didn't want to block Snape, he wanted to hurt him for all the years of pain he'd suffered because of the lousy git.

Snape screamed, and Harry felt the connection breaking. He was aware of the world outside of the memory and he pulled his secondary wand from his pocket, and pointed it at Snape. "_Accio._"

His wand flew from Snape's pocket, where it was being held and Harry grabbed it with his open hand. Then, not wanting to suffer Snape's wrath once again, he turned back and headed down the hallway, his whole body aching from the curse.

He came to a split and his mind told him to go down the left path which he didn't waste an instant thinking about even though he'd never been there before. Snape's pain didn't last long though, he stood again, racing after Harry.

"What have we here?" someone asked as Harry turned down a dark corridor. He wasn't sure exactly where he was, but the voice was a welcome sign, it meant that Snape was not going to try and hurt him. There was an odd sound to the voice, and a familiarity that Harry couldn't pinpoint. He couldn't see the person either, they were engulfed in the darkness of the hall.

The pounding of Snape rushing into the hall stopped. He'd heard the voice to. "Good morning Severus," the voice called almost cheerfully. "Reacquainting yourself with all the passages? I thought we'd discussed that this area was offlimits to everyone but me."

Harry turned to Snape, and had an eerie feeling that he'd heard the voice before. He saw a malicious glittering in Snape's eyes and wondered who the man was, he certainly didn't get along with Snape very well. It was odd, most of the teachers got along fairly well even if it was only an act. That was, accept for Moody who had hated Snape.

"Harry was just trying to prove he was better at dueling," Snape said, venting his anger. "Though I doubt a student could ever beat a teacher here. They always have such lofty dreams."

"Well I'm sure they do, but it is our job to teach them how to succeed in their dreams, is it not? Why don't you leave Harry here, I'd like to speak with him." The voice said jauntily, and Harry was happy to see that it ticked Snape off even more. He'd gotten away this time, but until school started he was going to have to be careful about wandering the castle.

Snape stomped off, ever footstep making Harry feel better and better. "Thanks Professor," he said as he turned to the shadow, assuming that by the way the voice had spoken it was a professor.

"Hadwin, Professor Hadwin if you'd like. But you can call me Wendel if you'd prefer. Since we met outside of the school I don't believe we must be formal, I don't like being in a position of forced respect. That should be a choice."

As Harry's mind reeled he stepped into the dark. He could see Hadwin positioned up against a far wall, his wand positioned between his legs and standing straight in the air. Hadwin's hand was several inches from touching it at all, and nothing else was touching it either. It was odd because the rough walls were fall from flat enough to hold a wand, even a perfectly balanced one.

"This time I have my wand. You see," he said soothingly his hands staying stock still above the wand. "I thought it might perhaps be useful should there be a conflict between a student and a teacher in my hallway."

"You were at the top of the clock tower," Harry finally was able to say. "You were the nutter that jumped off."

"Not unlike jumping off a broom in mid air, though I believe that it's a much shorter distance."

Harry's eyes widened. "How did you know about that?"

Hadwin smiled. "The mind is such an interesting tool," he continued in his warm, soothing voice.

It was then that Harry noted that in the few moments they'd stared at each other Hadwin had already entered past the first barrier of his mind, and was slipping past the second. It was an odd feeling, the way he was doing it, and Harry didn't recognize it, but knew what was happening.

"Get out!" he shouted, focusing his mind to get rid of the intrusion and tearing his eyes away from Hadwins unblinking gaze. It hurt a little, focusing so much but the intrusion stopped and Hadwin slipped out just a slippery as he'd slipped in. He was smiling in the corner and Harry clenched his wand tightly. "Why did you do that?" he demanded, ready to curse the teacher.

The smile went unfazed. "Oh come now Harry, I am very aware of what just happened over the last two days. I was just curious as to how well it worked."

"Two days?" Harry questioned, his tone changing completely. "I was in Dumbledore's office for two days?"

"Well yes," Hadwin said, looking a little baffled. "Didn't Dumbledore explain that the process was not an easy thing? It took a great deal of time to sort out those memories in your mind, I should say there's a great deal of things in there."

"You were in my mind?" he demanded again. Dumbledore had mentioned that the potion left his mind vulnerable to others but hadn't said he was going to allow another person to enter his mind before the potion wore off.

"Oh yes, quite in interesting place if I do say so. I haven't come across a mind so torn with ideals since I met Wesley Phelps. Died early on in his life though, a sad loss, he would have been one of the greats."

"What did you do in there?" Harry said, angry that he'd been entered without his permission and swearing he was never going to let Dumbledore play with him again.

"Only organized your thoughts. That was the only reason I was called in, the only reason I saw as much as I did was because there was a lack of order and a great deal of foreign thoughts that wandered around in your mind. I was quite surprised, I've never seen anything quite like it until Dumbledore decided to try that experiment on you."

Hadwin had barely moved at all and his smile was utterly annoying. Knowing he wasn't going to get any happier standing around Harry turned and stomped the other direction. "Passwords bellator."

So, troubled that so many people had been trying to get into his head, Harry marched straight to the common room, ignoring the few teachers whose faces appeared in doors as he passed by.

•


	15. Missing the Feast

Chapter 15

• Missing at the Feast •

There was a whole week before school started and Harry had no problem avoiding Snape even though he wasn't trying. After he'd calmed down he was angry at himself for letting Snape have the upper hand. Snape should have been the one running, after all he had faced Voldemort before and compared to him, Snape was a pussycat.

When he left the common rooms during the day he always was prepared, hoping and wishing that Snape would try again. It was not the case though. Harry had wished for the Marauders Map so that he could come face to face with Snape again and he regretted leaving it behind to burn with his house.

Harry took meals just like normal, showing up at the Great Hall to eat with only a few other teachers. To his dismay the teachers he wanted to see, Snape, Dumbledore and the new teacher Hadwin, didn't seem to appear at mealtimes at all. Harry suspected all of them were avoiding him. McGonagall showed up twice, dressed up like a batty muggle which didn't surprise Harry at all. Now that the headquarters had been penetrated there had to be a base camp somewhere else, and it seemed that Hogwarts would be the most logical place.

No other out of the ordinary people showed up though, just the normal teachers. Most of them were a bit surprised to see Harry the first time, but no one said anything. The tables had been pushed to the side and everyone dined silently at a single center table. There were never more than 12 people eating at once, and there was rarely much group conversation.

After breakfast was served Harry would return to the common room immediately. Now that he was back at Hogwarts he assumed that he was allowed to use magic and had begun practicing again whether he was allowed or not. The common room of the Gryffindor classroom had been transfigured piece by piece until it barely resembled its former self.

Harry practiced other spells besides transfiguration, things he and Tonks had practiced on the island. It wasn't much, but he could barely remember what Tonks had shown him so, until he could use his Pensieve, he simply practiced everything he could remember.

There was personal transfiguration spells, things to help him disguise who he was, charms to change his voice and hair color, clothing transfiguration spells, which he seemed to have almost mastered, inconspicuous charms so that he wouldn't stand out in a crowd. He was trying desperately to get the unmemorable charm Tonks had taught him to work, but since he didn't have anyone to try it on he didn't know how to test himself. Some of them he never could be sure if they worked at the moment, but he still spent a great deal of time trying to master them.

He had also begun practicing the duplication spell. Now it was little more than a waft of air, not even as strong as his original replica he'd performed to stop Snape. But, he'd seen Snape's and it was real, he knew he could do better.

As the days flew by Harry occasionally found himself knocked to the floor when a memory was imparted to him. They didn't come in intervals, but rather when something or someone triggered them.

Once, just after he'd taken lunch, leaving before the other professors, he spotted McGonagall leaving the castle and he was thrown against the wall as another memory wracked his brain. It was of a young Gryffindor named Minny. Who seemed to be, by far, the bossiest Gryffindor Harry had ever known.

_It was during a second year transfiguration class that she had stomped in and demanded to be allowed to take it, rather than deal with the inadequacies of the first year class. After stating how easy the first year class was and demanding to be allowed to take the second year class Harry simply excused himself from the class, leaving Higgens in charge, and taken her to professor Dipper. There she had been subjected to a test to prove that she was above the first year Transfiguration class. She failed, miserably, and was forced to deal with the 'inadequacies' of the first year transfiguration class. Though, she did extremely well and might have been able to take a more advanced class her second year if she'd pushed herself. _

Harry had been surprised when he had the memory of Professor McGonagall and he'd had to fight a snicker every time he did see her at meal times – the muggle attire made things even worse. When she was eleven she hadn't had glasses, but she had a funny looking face, as if she were trying to look proper but couldn't decide whether it was suppose to look as if she were going to be sick or if she'd just been caught in her knickers.

Hadwin elected no memories, but Harry began having a feeling as if he'd met him and not just a few weeks prior, but much earlier in his lifetime. He was a strange fellow, but whatever he was Harry knew one thing, he was very good with spells and entering other peoples minds.

The day the students arrived Harry was to be found in the common room just like every other night, but he was changing the common room back to its former state so that no one would know he'd been doing magic. There was a slight popping sound in between spells and Harry turned to find himself staring into two large eyes.

He took a few steps back, startled, but knew who it was immediately. His wand, which had been pulled as a reflex, was pocketed immediately. "Dobby!" he exclaimed, happy to see the house elf. He'd been meaning to go and see both Dobby and Hagrid, but somehow the time had just passed too quickly.

Dobby smiled softly, the pile of hats gone from his head. He seemed . "Harry Potter sir," he said reverently, "Dobby is hearing... Dobby is hearing Harry Potter is back in the castle and is waiting to come see the young master. But Dobby can wait no more. Dobby hears that master is betrayed sir, betrayed by a house elf. The others is hearing it too, they is all sad sir. They is wanting to make amends but they is not knowing how sir."

There was a moment that Harry was betrayed by the emotions that filled him. His face turned sour and his thoughts drifted to Sirius. He pushed them away though, he couldn't let them stand in his way. Dobby seemed to have shrunken back a little at Harry's reaction but he was waiting quietly for Harry to say something.

"It's alright Dobby," Harry said quietly, after he'd forced himself to loose the saddened look he knew adorned his face. "I don't blame any of the elves here. I know you'd never do something like that."

The house-elves ears wiggled and he smiled brightly, seeming much more like his normal self. "Dobby is also hearing sir," he said a bit brighter, "that sir is able to make a club this year. He is wanting to know if he can help at all."

The DA, Harry knew that he must have heard that he'd be able to continue it and likely knew who from. He was sure he'd be able to, but felt comforted knowing that Dobby had heard it somewhere. "We don't need anything right now Dobby, but I'll make sure to find you if we do."

Dobby's head bobbed vigorously backwards and forwards. "Sir is needing some help?" he asked, staring around the room and noticing some of the abhorrent transfiguration Harry had done. It was easy to change things, but not always as easy to change them back.

If Harry had given himself another day he knew he'd be able to get it all done, but it wasn't something he wanted to work all night doing. "Maybe a little Dobby, I was thinking of redecorating Gryffindor, but it didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped," he lied, trying to keep that he'd been practicing magic the whole time. He didn't like to lie, but he wasn't sure how many people would know about it if Dobby found out. Dumbledore was his master after all, and what house-elf could keep secrets from their master? Dobby was the only one he'd known could, but that was when he was house-elf for the Malfoy's and had hated them.

"Dobby is helping sir," he said and with a snap of his fingers things began to change.

"How do you do that Dobby?" Harry asked, watching in awe as the room transformed around him. He recalled Dobby doing some magic before, but had never seen transfiguration done so easily, except by McGonagall.

There were a few more snaps before the house-elf answered. Harry was watching in amazement as the room was transformed before his eyes. "House-elves is having strong magic sir," Dobby finally said as he transformed a cushion on the far wall to a seat that extended along one whole side of the common room. It was almost as if Dobby knew what some of the Gryffindors had wished for in the past and he was making the room fit their needs.

"Did some one teach you?" Harry asked in awe.

"Oh no sir," Dobby said happily, seeing that Harry very much liked the changes, " Dobby is knowing how to do it since he was very little. It is a thing all house-elves knows sir. They is supposed to do magic to help their masters and they is always finding a way sir."

A thought occurred to him, he remembered Dobby the first year he'd met him, when he'd come to the hospital while Harry was mending his boneless arm and then, just now how he'd shown up. "You can apparate in Hogwarts grounds, can't you?" he asked curiously. Hermione would be dejected to find out that _Hogwarts, A History_ wasn't perfect.

Another change was made in the tower and Harry felt a memory rush upon him. The far wall next to the fireplace had once contained a cage. Harry grabbed a hold of the corner of the couch as the memories rushed back to him.

_It was night time, and he'd been sneaking around the castle trying to catch Gilbert pulling a prank on the Gryffindors, he wasn't going to allow them to happen if he could help it. And, if he caught Gilbert in the act he'd get his just reward. But, unfortunately the night was quiet and he'd snuck back into the Gryffindor common room unnoticed by anyone._

_The common room was empty except for the creature on the far side of the common room who was pacing. "Godric," Harry said quietly, "are you hungry? I've got some meat I picked up in the kitchens for you."_

_The lion stopped its pacing and sat down quietly near a small opening in the cage. Harry unwrapped a large slab of meat that had weighed down his pocket on the way back and then, with his other hand opened the door of the cage instead of slipping the meat in through the opening._

_Godric, the lion took the meat carefully and began gnawing at it while Harry petted him. "You're not going to last much longer in this cage, are you?" he asked quietly. "It's alright, just hold on a little longer and I'll find a way for you to go free."_

_The giant cat purred which didn't surprise Harry as he continued stroking his mane. After several minutes Harry left the cage again, latching the lock carefully and then headed up to his bed._

Jerking from the memory, Harry found himself laying on the ground with two huge green eyes peering down at him. "Is Harry Potter alright sir?" Dobby asked, a little scared. "Should Dobby be taking Harry Potter to the hospital sir?" he continued questioning Harry.

"No," Harry said, trying to sit up and sending Dobby scuttling off him. "It's just these memories I keep having, they sometimes come at odd times and it's hard for me to stay balanced because my brains in a different place it seems. It's alright, really."

Though Dobby didn't look entirely convinced he nodded just slightly, enough for Harry to know that he accepted the story for now. "Is Master Harry excited sir?" Dobby asked, moving back to the redecoration of the common room. "About the new school year? Dobby is hearing many things is planned for the students."

"Yeah," Harry said quietly, waiting for the throbbing in his head to go away. His scar tingled just slightly, but Harry didn't worry about it, Voldemort may try to show him things but he could block it anytime he wanted now.

It occurred to Harry that Dobby might know a bit more about Professor Hadwin and so he turned to the elf who was snapping his fingers at things all through the common room looking as though he were having the time of his life.

"Dobby," Harry asked quietly, "do you know the new professor, Professor Hadwin?"

The snapping stopped and Dobby turned, looking rather nervously to Harry. "Yes sir," he said weakly. "Dobby knows of him. The others is knowing as well, we senses him."

The next question drifted away in Harry's mind, Dobby was acting rather peculiar and Harry wondered why. "Senses? You feel him?" he asked puzzled.

It was pretty obvious Harry was onto something from the way Dobby reacted. He gripped his ears and shut his eyes, slamming his head into a nearby table. It took Harry a moment to get a hold of Dobby and stop him from hurting himself. "It's alright Dobby. Can you tell me _why_ you sense him?"

The only response Harry got was more violence, Dobby quivered and waved his finger, making a chair fly at him. Harry dove out of the way, pulling Dobby with him and groaned. "Alright, I won't mention him again Dobby," he said trying to decide how he might glean the information without forcing Dobby to hurt himself. At the moment there wasn't a way that he could think of, but he'd definitely be visiting Dobby soon.

Almost before Harry could think of an apology Dobby had disappeared from the common room leaving it nearly completed. Harry looked around before waving his wand and continuing the transfiguration he'd been doing. Dobby had done a lot of the work, but there was still a few things that he needed to take care of.

When he finished up there was just enough time to change and then get to the great hall and be there when the others arrived. He planned on slipping into the mass of students as they entered into the castle so that no one noticed him.

As Harry had descended the second set of stairs and was passing through a secret passage his pocket began to grow increasingly warmer. He stopped, hiding himself in the shadows and searched out what was burning in his pocket.

From his pocket came a galleon. This was, however, not an ordinary galleon. It had been in Harry's pocket at all times as a reminder of what he and the DA had been able to accomplish by the end of the year. When he and Tonks had flown off it had been with him, and it was the only other thing that hadn't been destroyed.

By the time he got it close enough to examine the date on the side it was burning hot. He read the little inscription on the side. Instead of a time and date it had a single word, _now_.

Abandoning the previous path Harry found himself at the entrance to the room of requirements. There was only one person who could be using the coin to call him, Hermione. She was the only one that understood the spell that had been put on them.

Harry was curious though, the carriages hadn't even been in site from the third floor corridor, and he wondered why Hermione was so insistent that he go now? It didn't matter to Harry, he'd already missed more than half of the feasts the first night anyway, it didn't matter to him much, missing another one.

It really didn't matter to Harry though, if Hermione needed him there he was going to be there. If she was calling him, most of the others would probably be coming too. So, he focused on the room, making sure it was perfect for a meeting. There would be no fighting tonight.

He only had to pass the wall twice before the doorway appeared and he entered into it. A long table was in the center of the room, sized so that it could accommodate more than all of the DA students. Harry drew up a soft chair and then sat, waiting.

The wait wasn't as long as he expected it to be, the door cracked open and a robed figure slipped in, it turned and the wind from the hallway swept the hood from her head, whipping her brunette hair with it. The door closed and there was a click of the lock.

Harry gaped as he saw one of the most unlikeliest of people approach him. A Slytherin, a female Slytherin at that. Though he had never been formally introduced to her he knew who she was. She had a serpents tongue, and even Malfoy feared her wrath. It may have been why she was a singled out Slytherin, or because, but she was rather quick to speak when it was about her.

There was however one thing Harry had noticed, her strange impartiality, she didn't take sides like the Slytherins did, she created debts and used them. A year ago, during some scuffle the twins had created she had told Professor Umbridge that she had witnessed the whole event, effectively clearing the twins of the blame. Even longer before that she'd helped Hannah Abbott when she'd been unable to get her work done for Herbology. While they weren't huge debts, Harry was sure she made sure to keep track of them. She was a Slytherin after all.

Now she was as composed as usual, her eyes drilling into Harry's. "Good," she said quietly as she approached. "I wasn't sure if the coin would work."

The revelation that she'd been the one to use the coin to call Harry stunned him and his hand found its way into the pocket of his cloak, gripping his wand tightly. His mind noted that his other wand was hiding in it's usual place even before he had to think about it.

Harry was so shocked that it took him a moment for words to come from his mouth. "You called me?" he asked, utterly aghast. Had one of the DA members betrayed them again? Was this Slytherin here for some dark purpose – trying to prove her loyalty to Voldemort?

"What do you want?" he demanded before she could answer his first question.

She did not even make the slightest recognition of him speaking. Instead, she waved her wand and a seat slid across the floor to her feet. After she had taken a seat, she looked at him, the queerest of looks on her face. "You look so much different up close," she said quietly as she inspected him. "Much different than I remember. It is odd, isn't it, that such a small person could stand up to the greatest wizard of this age?"

The wand in Harry's hand wavered just slightly as he prepared for some sort of spell, but nothing came. Blaise Zabini seemed remarkably calm. Harry wondered if someone else had followed her in under an invisibility cloak. But, knowing what it was like under a cloak he doubted that there had been enough time and besides, there hadn't been any signs of it.

"Alright," Harry said, finally understanding that Blaise would simply ignore him if he spoke to her as he had already. "Why am I here?" he asked, this time trying to keep himself calm. Whatever Blaise had to say she had certainly done a great deal to get him alone before saying it.

"You and I have a common goal," she said, her hands coming together theatrically. She looked at him with an over-zealous smile. "We both want Voldemort to fall."

Such a simple statement, but to Harry it was much more. It wasn't the fact that she'd used the name of the man so much as the lack of fear she showed towards it. And there was another thing, an onslaught of memories struck him and he stepped backwards, falling over the chair behind him and crashing to the ground.

_"We have a common goal you and I," a haughty voice said from the shadows. "I have come to know the mistakes I have made. The only way I know that I am to atone for such mistakes is to stop him. We now have a common enemy Albus, I think it would be best if we worked together to stop him."_

_Harry was standing in a large library, stacks of papers scattered across the desk in the center. No one else was around, they were away, some at the headquarters. "Well Severus," he said quietly. "How do you propose we go about this?" he asked, softly even though his mind was filled with thoughts, he wished to do much more than be gentle and calm. _

_The Jargens were gone; he'd only just received the letter from the ministry. It had happened a few hours previous and there was no doubt that Severus Snape had played a part in their killing. But, there was something about the way he was speaking, something that said he was being sincere._

_From the shadows a ghastly version of Snape appeared, his skin so pale that he resembles a ghost, his eyes having fallen back in their sockets as if they were trying to die before the rest of him did. There was a look of horror on his face, as if he were seeing his own death unfold before him. However, what caught Harry's attention was his hands. He did not hold a wand, nor any other mechanism for violence but it was obvious that they had seen it and not long before. For they were covered in a deep red substance that Harry knew was blood, it extended up the sleeves of Snape's robes and then down the front of them, making him seem almost like he'd lain in a pool of it._

Sitting bolt upright Harry looked around, getting his bearings again. The Snape of his dreams was going to give him nightmares.

"Are you alright?" a voice said, and Harry turned towards Blaise Zabini, his eyes alight. The acidic smell of blood still hung in his mouth, it stayed as if bits of copper had been ground into his nose. He could barely hold back the urge to be sick. He spat, trying to get the taste from his mouth and then he looked up to find Blaise staring at him wide eyed.

"You're having another attack, aren't you? Is he angry at someone?" she asked, then her hands shot to her mouth as if she'd uttered some heinous thing. It wasn't something Harry would have ever thought to see her do, she never lost control as far as he had ever seen.

It took Harry a minute for the world to fall into its correct place and when it did he looked to her, more than a little surprised. "You know about my scar attacks?" he asked her, curious as to how she'd come across that information. The whole school knew of the attacks of course, the whole wizarding world knew, but no one knew what they really meant except a select few.

"Such a special gift," she said, acting slightly malicious. "And yet, such a burden. There are a lot of things I know about you Harry Potter, I have spent the last year of my life studying you. I knew what would happen after you came back from the third task of the Triwizard Tournament spouting about Voldemort being back. I was there, just beyond the minister, I heard everything. There had been whispers of course, nothing serious, but enough to get my attention. My parents were loyalists, though they never joined as Death Eaters, not then, but now that he has returned... well I knew that I had to make plans of my own."

"A fortnight ago my parents called me to a meeting, which is unusual, they rarely bother me when I'm doing something that they want me to do. I was ready, but startled. The place I went was putrid, wreaking of vile things I hate to imagine. But there I was told a great many thing, most I don't doubt you already know. There were other things too, plans that Voldemort was enacting, promises he had made. They thought it was the best thing for them and myself, to prove my loyalty early on. They want me to join his Death Eater ranks as soon as he'll admit me."

"They do not know of how I loath the man, how much I would rather see him die than to join his forces. That is a good thing, because had a made any reaction which was against Voldemort I was to be killed, it was the first part of my initiation into his throng. I will not be a death Eater for some time, but I must take order from him."

"Still, I knew the choice was coming, and in being prepared I saved myself from openly showing disrespect. They believed I would hold true to the things my parents had told me and gave me my first mission. Because my life is in such grave danger I accepted the mission without thought, and so here I am. The mission was simply really, penetrate the DA club you've formed and report activities and abilities. Apparently there was a great deal of them upset about how five children could go against such a death eater force and walk away. I applaud the effort."

Blaise paused briefly, allowing some of the words to sink in. She was very apt at making things go in her favor and had a way with words. It was just natural for her to allow some of the impact to sink in before continuing on. Harry was speechless, Blaise was making it obvious that she hated Voldemort and wanted to be on the side of good, but she was a Slytherin, and weren't all Slytherin's bad?

"Now that I have told you what has happened I want to make an agreement with you. I may not be the greatest spy in Voldemorts forces, and I'm not even ranked as a Death Eater, but I can provide you with information. I want you to use that information to stop him and destroy him," she paused again, taking a deep breath as if calming herself. It was still quite a bit of information for Harry to process and he was thankful that she wasn't pushing it as fast as she could.

"Other than using the information against him I must still look as if I am completing my assignment. That means I must be a part of the DA – at least for the time being. When there are meetings I be there, or look as if I've gone. There will understandably be a little contention and that can keep me out of some things for a while, but how long that lasts is also important. I can't allow it to continue through the whole year, I must look as if I'm getting closer friends."

"Besides that I will be given a safe place to study, perhaps even be able to benefit from your teachings, I've heard some teachers regard you as almost an equal. One even suggested you be given the DADA position this year under supervision. Though, I'm not sure how reliable my source is," she sighed. "I do know that every single fifth year student who was in the DA got an O on their OWLs and at least an E in charms while the rest of the students got no better than an E in the DADA test."

It struck Harry as funny that any of the teachers would have suggested he be the DADA teacher, he had no where close to the necessary requirements to be a teacher, and there was no way he could do it with all the other work he had to do in other classes. He may have enjoyed teaching the DA, but there was no way he could teach the whole of Hogwarts.

Blaise eyes him for a minute. "You _will_ teach my Occlumency. I understand you were studying it last year and I expect you're very good at it now."

Harry almost shook his head, he was good at it, but not because he'd studied it last year. He'd cheated his way through that one. Besides, he still didn't trust the girl, she had a great deal of information more than she should have, even if she had heard things in the hall.

"Why?" Harry finally was able to ask, not sure if she would give him the reason. He wanted to know why she didn't like Voldemort, all Slytherins did.

"Occlumency? If I am ever put face to face with Voldemort I do not want him to enter my mind. I know I will not for a while, I am only reporting to Draco Malfoy for the time being."

"No," Harry started but paused. Draco Malfoy? She'd just plainly identified him as a future, if not current, Death Eater. "I meant..." he began again, but couldn't continue, his mouth had lost the words he was thinking.

"You meant why am I doing this? Why am I coming to you? Why am I making this decision?"

Harry nodded mutely, still thinking about Draco.

"I hate Voldemort, that should be enough," she stood up and walked around the room, her hand searching for something she could not see. Eventually it came to rest on the cracked foe glass. "As for why I came to you there are multiple reasons. Don't be so presumptuous as to assume it was because I believed you could protect me. I do believe, given your past success that you were the best choice to funnel the information to, I _know_ where your loyalties lie. And besides, the best reason was because it deviated very little from the proposed plan. I am being watched, of that I am sure, and if I were to go to Dumbledore my reasons would be apparent. In order for me to stay alive I must do something which I would normally do in my position. Meeting you is one of those things."

Harry was hard set to accept the truth of her words, he didn't trust Slytherins at all, there was always something in it for them. But, given the circumstances, he wasn't going to turn her away – at least not yet. "Alright I won't say yes immediately, I am far from trusting you. However I don't expect the information to be given to me immediately either. I'll have to talk it over with some people, and decide what the best decision is."

A smile crept over Blaise's face. It was as though he'd already given her an answer that she had liked. "You're made out to be much more rash than you seem to be," she said calmly. "But you're really a Slytherin at heart, I can't believe the sorting hat didn't chose you to be one."

Though Blaise seemed to know a lot of things Harry was glad she did not know how close he had come to becoming one. He smiled as sweetly as possible, but gave her no answer. He felt as if simply talking would give away something, some hint of what she'd just spoken about.

"Alright, I can accept that. But, there is however a matter which is rather urgent. In order for me to gain your trust I was to tell you of the attack on the castle that was to happen tomorrow evening, after everyone and everything had settled down. I wasn't given too many specifics, because they did not want me to know too much, but I believe it will not be just witches and wizards that will be attacking the castle. I don't know exactly what he is planning, but there is a darker purpose than just gaining your trust. What it is, I haven't the slightest clue."

"Now," she said, a coin appearing in her hand almost magically. "You might want to call a meeting with your little club and speak with the headmaster as well. I am going to go see Draco and tell him that I told you of the meeting. Don't spend too long deciding about my offer, while it is because I hate Voldemort, I will not let it risk my life if I think you will not follow through on your part."

•


	16. A New Master

Chapter 16

• A New Master •

The lack of noise in the room of requirements made it seem as if it were an empty hole. The darkness that had filled it didn't help the image.

Harry sat quietly, straining his mind, there was something he didn't understand. Voldemort knew he would know, Voldemort wanted him to know, why? If Blaise didn't have any idea why and she was telling the truth, which he instinctually knew was right – she was telling the truth no matter how much he wanted to deny it, then there was some ulterior motive, but what could it be?

Time ticked by as Harry thought, but nothing came to mind, besides Voldemort trying to lure him out. He wouldn't allow it though, not after what had happened to Sirius last year, he wouldn't allow for Voldemort to pull him into another trap.

A piece of parchment with a quill and inkwell appeared in front of him and Harry wrote down everything about the attack he knew – which was virtually nothing besides it was happening the following day. He didn't mention Blaise, as much for spite as the fact that he wanted to keep her a secret from Dumbledore. After all, she'd never told him to tell Dumbledore about herself.

When he finished writing it out he read it again. It almost made it sound like a scar attack, that he'd had some sort of vision. He didn't write any doubt into it though, because he knew that Blaise wasn't lying, she believe the Death Eaters were coming. Unless Voldemort had tricked her for some other reason he would come.

Exhausted by some unknown force he rolled up the parchment carefully and a stamp appeared before him. It was a good idea to seal the note; Harry certainly didn't want anyone else reading it other than Dumbledore. So, taking a nearby candle he dripped a slight bit of wax onto the parchment and pressed the seal against it.

Pausing, Harry sat the roll to the side, not really paying attention to it. If he was to really give the scroll to Dumbledore then it was likely that he'd be put into some secret room that he wouldn't be able to do anything from. No Fighting. No vengeance for Sirius's death. No way to help out against the Death Eaters. Dumbledore wouldn't allow anything of the sort; he already knew the answer without asking the question. Even though he should be included, he of all people had been one of the few people at the school that was qualified to fight against them other than the teachers.

However, not telling Dumbledore might be exactly what Voldemort was trying to get him to do. He couldn't do that; it would mean that the school would be relatively defenseless. He _could_ tell the DA and hope they could defend the school, but that was even worse, he wasn't about to endanger their lives like that. Yes, he was going to tell them, but only because they needed to help keep the school in check. Dumbledore couldn't do everything. He had mentioned in the letter that he would be telling them. He'd also asked that Dumbledore left him alone, though he doubted it would make much of a difference.

Light filtered into the room as the door creaked open. A gust of air whipped through, but the door closed just as quick. No one appeared that he could see and he wondered who had come. He hadn't called the group yet and even then - they should all be in the feast still.

Feet padded across the stone floor, Harry could hear them as they closed in on him and he wondered if someone was under an invisibility cloak. He'd had years of experience with them, and because he hadn't seen anyone he figured it was the only way someone could be there. He was wrong when he saw Dobby appear around the side of the table.

Relieved somehow that it wasn't Ron or Hermione he smiled as best he could to Dobby. "Hello Dobby," he said quietly, thinking about how long it would be before his two friends went looking for him. Dobby didn't seem to notice his distraction, but didn't return the smile.

"Dobby is thinking sir, when Dobby is not seeing Harry Potter at dinner, Dobby is thinking he is angered Harry Potter. Dobby is not wanting Harry Potter angry with him," Dobby said before Harry could say anything else. It was then that Harry noticed the nervous look on his face.

"I'm not..." Harry began to say, trying to get Dobby to feel better. It made Harry feel worse to know that Dobby was feeling bad because of him. Feeling any worse would only lead to depression.

"So Dobby is thinking of how is he telling Harry Potter the things he is wanting to say, Dobby is thinking really hard about it. Dobby is thinking he is finding a way," he said.

From the look in his eyes Harry thought he was terrified, but he wasn't quite sure why. Harry continued to stare, mouth agape and he decided that Dobby was horrified, but not the same horror Harry thought about when he was scared. He was interested to, and he nodded slightly, wondering what it was Dobby had figured out. Even though the elf didn't have much, he was still Harry's friend and Harry wasn't about to risk their friendship to find out about the new teacher. Finally, he proceeded to speak, slowly, deciding that he would see what Dobby had to say before telling him yes or no.

"Alright Dobby, how do we do it?" he asked, trying to avoid the excitement he was feeling. For a moment the impeding battle had faded from his mind.

"If... if Harry Potter is asking... when..." his voice faded and his large green eyes stared at Harry for a minute searching for something. He gulped and his little body shook uncontrollably. "If Harry Potter is asking Dobby as his master," he paused just briefly. Before Harry could register what was being said he continued, finally finding the confidence and rushing through the rest. "If you is asking as Dobby's master Dobby must obey. Dobby is wanting too now, but Harry Potter is not his master and he is not allowed to tell anyone but his masters."

"Me?" Harry asked, startled, "your master? I couldn't have an elf," he said imagining for a second what it would be like to have his own personal elf. It didn't take long for a long lecture from Hermione to start. Ron wouldn't say anything, but he'd hate it anyway the same way he hated Harry's popularity. Even if he was a good friend he wasn't unable to feel. That wasn't to mention what everyone else would think, or what would happen if the papers got a hold of it. "Hermione would kill me. Not to mention you're a Hogwarts elf now, and your master is Dumbledore."

Dobby looked crestfallen, but his resolve had not faded at all, instead it seemed to have been intensified. "When Dobby is starting at Hogwarts he is asking Master Dumbledore if he can stop working when he is finding another job. Master Dumbledore is saying Dobby can leave anytime he and Winky wants. Dobby is asking these things because... because he is hoping that when Harry Potter is moved out of his muggle house that Dobby could go with Harry Potter and live there. He is hoping he could maybe help for a place to stay. Dobby wants to be friends with Harry and he wants to be free too," he finished and began to wring his hands nervously.

Instead of terror he looked nervous now, a look that Harry recognized quickly. Ron had that look a lot last year. It took a long time for Harry to digest all of the information that Dobby was giving him. It wasn't something that he had to read between the lines about. Dobby was saying, outright, that he wanted Harry to be his master - that he'd wanted to be way back when he had first come to Hogwarts. And, to top it all off, Winky was coming too. "I..." Harry said, but faltered. He didn't know how to respond exactly. "I don't know what you would do Dobby – I don't need you very much. I don't even have a home anymore."

"Dobby is hearing all this and that is why Dobby is thinking Harry Potter could be his master. Harry Potter turns 17 in the summer, which means that he is a legal wizard. So Dobby thinks Harry Potter could get a home for himself and Dobby could help there. If Harry Potter is getting a house Dobby could still work even without pay, but Dobby is hoping..."

Harry knew Hermione was going to ring his neck for even entertaining the idea. But he couldn't help it; the look was so hopeful that he would feel as if he were the bad guy if he just turned Dobby down outright. "What about Winky?" he asked – trying to pity Dobby outright and just saying yes. He knew he didn't have the sort of money to keep Dobby, and even if he did there was still Hermione and Ron... As for everyone else, he was beginning to care less about the rest of them. They had turned their backs on him enough times; next time no matter what it took he would ignore them all. "What does she think about all this?"

From the look on Dobby's face Harry wondered if he shouldn't have mentioned Winky. It wasn't something that he liked to do, but still it was better to ask now than to find out later. Winky hadn't seemed to like him very much beforehand and now, well he wasn't sure how she'd react to him being her master. He knew one thing; he couldn't let her go because she'd probably have a complete breakdown.

"Winky is not saying much Harry Potter, she is just crying and drinking more butterbeer. Dobby is trying to help, Dobby is doing his best to make her feel better but she is not listening. Dobby is trying to get her to work because all house-elves know that work is helping to forget, but the other elves is not giving her any tasks. They is thinking she and Dobby is both bad elves. They is not liking us at all. That is why Dobby is wanting to leave now Harry Potter. If Dobby could take Winky somewhere where she is always working then maybe Dobby could help make her better," he paused. "She is not a bad elf Harry Potter, she is just needing to forget."

"I know," Harry breathed, not truly understanding her exact circumstances, but knowing what she needed. The pain she felt in her heart was too much, and she didn't know any other way to live so she was now a raging drunk it seemed.

The last bit of resolve Harry had faded with a sigh. There wasn't any other way to make it out of it in good standings with Dobby. And he did owe Dobby a lot more than just a thank you. "Alright Dobby," he said slowly, closing his eyes and remembering what Dobby was being paid. "4 Galleons a month and whatever time you want off, good enough?" he asked, feeling tired again. The impeding battle was coming back into his mind no matter what was happening at the moment.

In the brief moment that Harry took to glance down at Dobby he was bowled over with tremendous force as the ecstatic house-elf squeezed him with superhuman strength. The chair he had been sitting in clattered on the stone floor but Harry couldn't do anything about it. The whistling of the wind was the only sound aside from Harry's breathing. Then, there was a sniffle and crying. "Dobby is so happy," Dobby said, his voice muffled in Harry's robes. He looked up as giant tears dropped from his eyes. It didn't take long for Harry's shirt to get soaked.

When Dobby finally let go and Harry was able to move again he proceeded to stand up the chair he'd been sitting in. Then, after straightening up his robes he looked at Dobby as professionally as possible. "No one is to know, not Ron, not Hermione, not Dumbledore. Not yet at least," he said, thinking of other peoples reactions. Luna might be the only one at the school who wouldn't make a big deal out of it and he certainly didn't want to talk about with her. Tonks... well, Tonks might be happy for him, he wasn't sure, and he'd like to tell her but she wasn't around at the moment.

Tonks.

Aurors.

Harry grinned, just barely, if they were coming everything would be alright. Surely that would be one of the very first things Dumbledore did, after contacting The Order. It would all be alright, all he needed to do was get the other members of the DA down here so that they could help keep the students safe. They needed to be around so that everything could be kept calm and in case the Death Eaters did make it into the castle, a last defense of sorts.

Harry heard Dobby speaking in front of him and he snapped his attention back to the present. "Don't you dare call me Master Dobby, Harry is still just fine."

"Yes Harry Potter sir," Dobby said grinning like a little boy who'd just gotten a brand new Firebolt. Harry had a hard time not grinning back even with the fight hanging over his head, maybe it would be good to have Dobby around. "Is there anything else that Harry Potter would ask of Dobby or Winky?"

"Yes," Harry said nodding. "I want you to act like nothing has changed. Go about your normal duties as a Hogwarts elf for right now until I figure out everything. There's a lot to think about now. When I do have something for you to do I'll come find you. And we need to find out a way how to help Winky get better."

Solemnly Dobby nodded. The mention of Winky had depressed him just a little and Harry hated it, but he hated it even more that Winky was in such bad shape. The first thing he planned on doing as her so-called 'master' was taking care of her. "Dobby is able to do everything sir asks. Dobby is wanting Harry Potter to know that all Harry has to do is call Dobby's name and he will come. There is other ways but Dobby is thinking they is too complicated. But the walls, they speak to the elves so to know when they is to come and work."

"One more thing," Harry said, taking the sealed scroll from the table. "I'd like you to deliver this to Dumbledore when the feast is over."

For a moment Dobby's head turned to the side and he leaned it over gently. His ears perked up slightly and then he turned back to Harry. "The feast is ended Harry Potter sir, the students is all going to their rooms."

Harry sighed he didn't think he'd been sitting around that long. "Alright then get it to him right away, and not anyone else, it is important that he is the one that reads it first." Dobby nodded then, Harry continued. "Tomorrow, after it's all done and over with we can get back to talking about the new teacher and more about what you're going to do now that you're my responsibility."

"It is hard to ask," Dobby said as he took the scroll from Harry's hand. He didn't seem to mind in the least bit asking his question though; it seemed more like something he had been taught to say before asking. "But what is happening tomorrow? Dobby is not hearing that anything bad might happen. Why is Harry Potter thinking that tomorrow he is not living?"

Somehow Harry knew he should have expected it instead of Dobby just following instructions, and he wasn't angry with Dobby at all, he knew who Dobby was and what he was like long before that moment. "The castle is going to be attacked tomorrow Dobby," Harry said quietly. "That's what I've been told, and though I don't know how or when I'm sure it will happen. Since I'm the only one that knows I have to tell Dumbledore so he can be prepared."

Dobby seemed extremely frightened. "They is Death... Eaters?" he asked slowly, almost afraid to speak the words.

Harry nodded feeling better that he'd told someone.

"Now I need that letter to get to Dumbledore right away. Do whatever he asks Dobby, remember you're suppose to act like a Hogwarts elf for now."

With a nod Dobby scurried out the door. "And Dobby," Harry said, trying to catch him before he disappeared. His words however fell to the empty walls and were lost in the rush of wind that opening the doors brought. Harry hoped that Dobby would be quiet enough that no one else would know, not yet. It would be bad if the whole castle got into a ruckus before Dumbledore even knew what was happening.

Silently Harry pulled the coin from his pocket, muttering the spell Hermione had taught him. The date along the side melted away and then formed a single word. _Now._ All Harry had to do was wait and see who would come.

The wait didn't last very long before the door creaked open and Harry could hear the wind pummel it as it closed. He looked up to see who had come and was a little shocked. Luna was standing their, her windswept hair only adding to the slightly lost look on her face. When she saw Harry she smiled lazily and walked towards him.

Harry did his best to smile back, but his mind was quickly filling with so much information that he was beginning to have trouble seeing clearly. He reached up to adjust his glasses nervously, trying to decide what exactly he was going to tell everyone and he found that his glasses had slipped from his face without him noticing it.

Taking a quick step back to check the floor for his glasses he heard a crunch that was dreadfully familiar. Another step back revealed a set of crushed glasses and frames twisted in odd angles. It took a moment to register that there was no way for him to repair them; he wouldn't be able to concentrate enough to get the glass to repair smoothly. Hopefully Hermione would be able to repair them.

"Uhm," Luna said quietly, but so close that she startled Harry. "Would you like me to fix those?" she asked, her voice still extremely quiet.

Harry looked up at her without the vaguest change in expression. Though she was waiting for a response she hadn't been ready for such a desperate look. She stepped back, so startled that she couldn't speak. The look on her face was almost like the final string and Harry's mind snapped and his mind blanked.

_Someone was shaking him and there was a pungent smell of blood that filled the air. Harry sat bolt upright to the concerned face of a scarred brunette woman. "Are you alright?" she asked, anxiety overriding her normal facial expressions._

_Harry shook his head and looked around, struggling to grasp where he was. He was at the edge of some sort of forest, with a cliff on the other side of him. Below lay a lake of..._

_"Blood," the brunette said and Harry remembered her name was Deborah. "After the last attack he slaughtered everyone, even his own soldiers. Then, instead of destroying the bodies he summoned them all to the lake and cast a spell to make them bleed completely. He's lost it completely, even the Aurors think he might be unstoppable._

_"How long have I..." began Harry, wondering how long he'd been out. The words sunk in and he stopped momentarily, turning to the side and he was sick all over the ground. The lake of blood was, by far, the worst sight he'd ever seen._

_"It's been a two and a half days since you were struck unconscious. You were struck with three separate stunners, and pretty strong ones too. James pulled you out before they were able to get a subjective potion down your throat. But he went out during the last siege... he's there somewhere," she said, gesturing sadly towards the lake below them. In the distance, somewhere below them and in the forest beyond the lake there was a scream that only sounded remotely human._

_Harry felt the blood drain from his face and he recognized the voice. "Edward?" he asked rhetorically, not really wanting to hear the answer. The silence that followed was enough._

_Using all of his strength, slowly he pushed himself up, trying to get to his feet. It took a great deal of energy to move at all and Deborah placed her arm on his shoulder gently. "Don't you dare," she whispered in his ear. "I may not be a superb healer, but I do know that you're in no shape to be moving around. You won't recover if you strain yourself now."_

_No matter her position Harry would have none of it. He'd already lost enough of his friends. Standing took a series of tries, but he was finally able to make it to his feet. His right hand instinctively went for his wand next, but found none._

_"It was broken before James got to you," Deborah responded to his movement. "I'm sorry."_

_One step at a time Harry moved forward. The place was hideously empty, and at any other time it would have been a great relief, but now... Just three days ago hundreds upon hundreds of men had lined the forest battling. The blood and bodies had been splattered along the path, a sight that would burn into any mans memory. They were all gone now, donating blood to the lake no doubt_

_The night had barely fallen and the moon shown brightly along the path as Harry stepped down it. Nighttime was not the best time for him to fight, but it would have to do. Every day he spent resting the powers he fought against grew more powerful._

_"You're just going go and get yourself killed, aren't you?" a voice spoke from the woods along the path._

_Harry turned to him, groaning from the pain it caused. "Pierre," he said feeling a sense of anxiety fill him. "How are you?"_

_"Alive," the man named Pierre said, breaking away from the shadows that concealed him. "Unlike most of my companions. I passed the test it seems, I am my own master, no one can tell me what to do any longer. That means I may choose whichever path suits me best and I have come to believe that this one is far better suited for me."_

_He bowed forward wordlessly, much more formally than most people were able to do. Years of experience had perfected the movement. His hand flicked, just as silently and smooth, almost gracefully, a wand shot forward, falling at Harry's feet. Harry stooped to pick it up and when his eyes returned to the shadows Pierre was gone._

_Each step forward was progress and somehow made Harry feel a little healthier each time until he was able to stand straight without effort. Somewhere behind him he could hear Deborah crying, but he ignored her, what he was going to do was set and he wouldn't allow anyone to stop him._

_Gripping the wand that had been given to him he tried to think of the magic banishing spell. It was his only chance, and though the loss of his life was likely it was better than to allow the evil to sweep over the world. Whatever power Grindelwald had discovered obviously magnified his powers – so he had to strip him of that power._

_The lake passed by on his right and Harry fought to look at it, he needed to focus. The path straightened out finally and in front of him a great castle seemed to rise out of the depths. It had not been there before and it was a testament to just how powerful Grindelwald had become._

_Someone was laughing. "Albus," the voice said almost curiously, but cold at the same time. "Come to play one last hand with me?" He laughed again, sounding less and less sane as the seconds passed._

_"Your army succeeded in destroying the few loyal followers I had left – and those who did survive were given to the powers that be. I have no need for followers anymore," he said and appeared suddenly in front of Albus without a sound. It was almost as if he had apparated, but he hadn't... it was impossible in this place._

_"It seems you have finally..."_

Harry awoke with a jolt, something was pressed against his head and he looked around finding the concerned eyes of the DA upon him. His body still ached as it had in the memory and he felt the sickening feeling he'd had when he looked upon the lake. Rolling over he puked on the stone floor once more.

Several voices raised concerned and one wanted to take him to the infirmary, Harry raised his hand. "I'm alright," he moaned, trying to sit up. Someone hand appeared with his glasses in them and he took them gratefully, placing them on his face. The faces sharpened and he saw Hermione among them, Ron at her side.

"Help me up," he choked. "And someone please get rid of that mess."

Hands reached to him, helping him to his feet and as he found his seat he heard the Scourgify spell behind him. "I am sorry," he said finding his strength again as he pulled the wet cloth from his forehead. None of the memories had ever affected him so, but none of them had ever been so gruesome. He remembered the bodies that had littered the ground and he remembered the lake vividly. And Pierre, no not Pierre, Wendell Hadwin, they were the same person. There was something else, something that was on the edge of Harry's memory, something about Pierre. But the thought eluded him and he was brought back to the current situation when someone cleared their throat.

Looking upon the table he found that the whole of the DA had already seated themselves and were waiting for something. Hermione sat just to his right and Ron to his left. "Is everyone here?" Harry croaked, fighting away the memory of the bloody lake.

"Everyone that's coming," Hermione said cryptically, but Harry didn't hear the sarcasm in her voice. He simply nodded and stood.

"I have been informed that sometime tomorrow Death Eaters will be attacking the castle. Though I am not sure of the source I have come to believe that the information is reliable this time. I called you all here tonight so that we can help the teachers keep the students in check. No doubt the Prefects will be assigned these duties from Dumbledore, but I thought it would be better if we had people who know what they're doing keeping track of the students."

"I know," Harry said, taking a long breath to keep himself calm, "it's been a long day for most of you and you're probably all tired. I am not forcing anyone to stay, but I think that we would have a better chance if we help. The headmaster has only just been informed of this information, he doesn't have a lot of time to plan a counter offensive. I do not know what he will plan, nor do I care, I simply want to make sure that we save everyone we can."

Silence filled the room when Harry quit talking. There were looks between all of the others and Harry noticed for the first time that several more of them now wore Prefect badges. He felt a since of pride, but didn't say anything, he only waited.

"Please leave if you don't want to help," he added finally, and waited to hear the squeaking of chairs moving. He feared the sound, but still the silence continued. Only added to by the muted beating of the wind against the walls of the castle. Still there was more to be said, and he hated to say it but he continued. "After last year I understand if some of you don't want to follow me, if you're afraid of what might happen. Even if we're the last line of defense we may still have to stand against the Death Eaters, but we need to show them that even though we are students we're not helpless."

"Ask anyone that went with me to the ministry last year, fighting with the Death Eaters is a lot different from dueling with other DA members, it's not going to be easy and it's not safe. You'll probably get injured or die if it happens, I don't want anyone to do it if they're afraid to take the risk."

No one even batted an eye.

"Alright," Harry said feeling tears well up in his eyes but he brushed them away, feeling more confident. "We're going to need more people. We may be strong, but we're no match for Death Eaters in number. Should we have to fight them I'd like other students prepared. Hannah, Ernie, Anthony, Padma, you're prefects still, right?" All of them nodded. He shouldn't have had to ask, but he still did. "Are there other students in your houses that are advanced enough to help us out? They'll have to be willing to fight if it's needed too."

Harry had his own idea about people in Gryffindor, and most of those who were capable were already in the DA. There was a couple of students that were formally sixth year Gryffindors who might be of some help. He watched as the two sets of Prefects spoke between themselves for a minute and then nodded to him. Harry nodded back, happy that there were more. He wasn't sure if it would come to battling for their part, but the larger the army the better the odds.

"Please, go get them," Harry said hoping that more students would be willing to help in the fight. "We're going to need everyone who'll help us. Oh, and if you know some level minded younger students I wouldn't mind having them either, they can help us get all of the younger students to listen. Don't tell anyone about what's going to happen unless you find it absolutely necessary, I don't want to worry anyone else yet."

The four nodded and made their way outside the door heading towards their common rooms. Harry hoped they got more than a few people. He would have sent off Hermione too if he didn't need her opinion right now.

Ron stood as they left. "Harry," he said hesitantly. "I think it might be a good idea to put the students somewhere else... somewhere where the Death Eaters won't look for them. Dumbledore will either lock students in the common room or the Great Hall, but neither is a good idea. If the Death Eaters do get in that'll be the first place they look. We should get everyone together, somewhere where the Death Eaters won't find right away, that way if the Death Eaters do break in there will be more time to stop them."

It didn't take much thought, moving them into one place meant that less people could stand protecting them because they wouldn't need to be split up between the common rooms. It was a strategic idea, an idea that Harry would not have thought of. He smiled at Ron and was rewarded with a smile in return.

"Harry," Hermione said in a more hesitant voice than Ron's. "You're sure this is going to happen, you're sure that's it's not another one of your..."

Even though he knew he shouldn't be angry he was. "No Hermione," he said venomously, but only loud enough for her and Ron to hear. "I have taken care of my scar attacks."

"But..."

Harry stood, the chair shooting out behind him. "What happened earlier was _not_ a scar attack," he said, raising his voice so that everyone could hear. "Due to something that happened a couple weeks ago I have been having lapses of memories and they are quite violent sometimes. I can do nothing about them, they are triggered by events that happen around me. At the moment they are not important, I will find a way to get rid of them when I have more time to spare, but until then I have to deal with them as they come."

No one said anything and Harry was glad, he would have hated to explode in front of them, but the strain of what he'd seen only a few minutes before still weighed upon him. "Now, is there any other ideas? Where would be a good idea to move the student?"

Zacharias stood up quickly, but waited until Harry nodded towards him before he spoke. "I think that it's a good idea," he said, and it was odd to hear him agree with anyone. Harry just smiled as he felt the pressure start to release. Everyone had let go of the incident without though and were moving on. "If we do that then we could show some of the younger students how to use a basic curse, like a stunning charm, so they could protect themselves a little even if we weren't available. It wouldn't help much, but it could always get them a few more minutes if we were injured. It gives them a way to try and protect themselves."

Around the table there were murmurs of agreement. Harry liked both ideas, it would mean that even in the end, if everyone else was stopped that the students would have at least a small chance. "Alright then, where should we put everyone?"

There were more whispers between people as the members discussed where to put people. There were a few responses, but nothing that sounded like the best answer, some wanted them to be put in the dungeons, some in a tower, but the tower was not secure and the dungeons was too obvious.

"Here," Hermione said suddenly, "this room would be perfect, it'll enlarge if we need it and it will be impenetrable unless they have extremely strong magic. Everyone here will be safe and there aren't very many people that know the location – except for the Slytherins, and they won't know where everyone is."

More muted approvals.

Luna stood up lazily, looking as if she were just waking up. "Do you think they'll know we know?" she asked lazily.

Harry shook his head. "I don't know, they might and we have to be prepared for that. I told Dumbledore that exact thing."

"Maybe we could do something they wouldn't expect." She noted idly, "trick them."

Someone laughed but Harry didn't, Luna really had something. "No, she's right," he said as inspiration struck. "They won't be expecting to be attacked from behind by a group of children. If we sneak behind them and wait until they're fighting with the Aurors we can slowly pick them off. They might not even know it's happening until it's too late," at this Harry paused. There was a problem, Wormtail.

If Voldemort were really going to attack the castle it wouldn't be from above, but from within. That meant that he might try to sneak in, or... "There's one problem with putting all of the students into one room," he said pausing. "I don't trust the Slytherins to want the same things the rest of us do. Perhaps we should leave the Slytherins somewhere else, they're much safer than the rest of the students."

Cho stood up looking a little angry. "I don't think we should exclude anyone, even if they are Slytherins."

"That's because your new boyfriend is one of those slimy gits," Ron said under his breath, seeming much like his old self. "We wouldn't want to let poor helpless Slytherin to get harmed, now, would we?" he added sarcastically. It took most of Harry's strength not to smile, no matter how serious it was Ron always seemed to have something to say about it.

"There's an easy fix," Hermione said, her chair sliding away from her again as she stood. "When we tell the room what we need we'll make sure that there are at least two separate areas, to split up the Slytherins from the rest of them. We won't tell them they're all in the same area so they're won't be any conflict. As long as we have an Auror or two keeping guard they won't try and escape."

The door opened and Dobby entered into the room. "Dobby," Harry said smiling as best as possible. "Is there a way that you can seal the secret entrances into the castle so that the Death Eaters can't get in?"

"That won't be necessary," said another voice and Harry found himself looking into the Headmasters smiling face. "The castle has its own defense mechanisms, I can seal it completely with a few words, or I can seal every entrance accept for one. Nothing will be able to enter."

Harry gaped, slightly angry that Dumbledore had come when he had asked him not to.

The rest of the night breezed by with the DA, but Harry was not among them. Dumbledore invited him to come help with 'other matters' as he put it, but only removed him of the presence of the DA before imprisoning him on the other side of a mirror in one of the castle towers. "I am sorry," he said before he left looking aged and weary. "I cannot afford for you to do something stupid and get yourself killed tomorrow. Dobby was with him, looking frightful and not sure what to do, but Harry shook his head and Dobby merely followed Dumbledore away.

As the sun dawned upon the next morning and Harry was staring out a tiny protected window. A chill filled him, and he shuddered, fighting away the thoughts of his parents and the thoughts of the bloody lake which overtook him.

"They're here," Harry whispered to himself. He was angry that Dumbledore had done so much to stop him from fighting. He had after all, decided not to already, to help the others inside the castle, but Dumbledore wanted more than Harry's word – apparently it wasn't good enough for him now that he couldn't read Harry's mind.

There was a knock at the mirror and Harry turned to it surprised, he had been restricted from leaving. The mirror would not allow him to get through it no matter what he tried, even with some of the tricks he'd learned from Tonks and the memories he'd had. He couldn't see through it either, it was a mirror on his side as well.

So, instead of answering the knock, he ignored it. Staring out to see the great battle that was about to take place. Something happened on the other side of the door, but it did not open. Harry ignored it again, knowing that Dumbledore had almost indefinitely put a spell to keep him from entering. The mirror however was not able to keep the attacker back and, as a second noise came, it shattered to pieces

Dobby was standing just in front of the broken mirror looking quite surprised, almost as if he hadn't expected it to break.

"Dobby?" Harry asked, rather startled that Dobby was the one to be on the other side of the door. When he'd shook his head he expected that Dobby wouldn't return, that he'd do as Dumbledore asked.

Without slowing to give an answer of any sort Dobby bound forward and grabbed Harry by the arm. "We is being told sir, we is being told you are held here. We is being told that you is not able to save the Weazy and we is coming to help?"

"The Weazy?" Harry asked, even more dumbfounded, "Ron? He's already in trouble? I told him to stay in the Room of Requirements."

"Not Master Potter's Weazy sir, Weazy's Weazy. She is coming when you is in the maze sir. She is the Weazy's Weazy."

It didn't take too long for Harry to understand what Dobby was saying, but it was even more confusing. It had to be Mrs. Weasley, there were only two female Weasley's that he knew of and Mrs. Weasley had only been to Hogwarts once that he knew of, and that was during his third task of the tournament, right when he went into the maze.

"Mrs. Weasley's in trouble? What... I mean, how's she, is she here?" he said, finally getting something meaningful out of his mouth.

While Harry tried to resist Dobby's tugging he found that it was harder than it should have been. Dobby couldn't weigh more than 60 lbs, if that, and yet he was able to almost drag Harry behind him. The more Harry resisted the more his arm was bruised so he finally quit trying to pull against Dobby and followed him reluctantly. While he was being pulled along he made a mental note that his second wand was still hidden inside his cloak. No one, save Tonks, knew he was carrying it yet.

When they finally stopped Harry looked up to find a picture of Sir Cadogan in front of him. He was leaned forward on his pony, sound asleep while his armor was slowly falling off of him. His sword and gauntlet were already laying on the ground and his left arm piece was about to fall.

"Sir!" Dobby squeaked, prodding the portrait, "you is needing to open the door."

"The door?" Harry asked, not quite sure what Dobby meant. There was no door behind Sir Cadogan, he'd been used as the Gryffindor portrait for a part of the third year and there had been no door that his portrait had concealed, not that Harry had seen anyway.

Next to him Sir Cadogan burped, but continued to snore in his portrait. Dobby seemed slightly irritated and prodded him so hard that the knight sat up, reached for his wand and promptly fell off the other side of his horse.

"Scurvy knave!" roared Sir Cadogan as he tried to sit up. It looked as if he'd had a bit too much to drink though and he wasn't even facing the right Dobby, instead facing the rear of his horse. "Draw your sword so that I can have your head. You dishonor me, stealing upon me in the debt of night!" For another few seconds the knight stared at the rump of his horse and then realized that it had not been the thing to disturb him. He turned slowly, first away and then towards Harry and Dobby.

"Hark scoundrel and draw thy sword!" he growled when he saw Harry.

The hall was empty and it echoed down through the emptiness. Harry didn't like the darkness of the morning, the candles had not even be lit yet and it felt as if someone were watching him in the darkness. He shivered, but didn't look around for long. Instead, he turned to the angry knight. "Shut up," he muttered angrily, he was already angry at Dumbledore for trying to enclose him in the tower and this portrait wasn't about to get away with being so stupid.

"You is needing to open the door," Dobby repeated squeakily again. "We is needing the stairs so Harry Potter can save the Weazy."

Sir Cadogan eyed the elf and then eyed Harry for a minute. "To save a life, an admirable quest. What say ye sir, doth thou want entrance?"

Harry didn't immediately nod, he was surprised that the knight seemed so lucid, though he still looked a bit crazy, his helmet no longer on his head and his hair sticking up all over. He was balding and the hair he did have was extremely sparse.

"Yeah, sure," Harry said offhandedly, but turned to Dobby. "Where is Mrs. Weasley and why's she in trouble?"

The wall that was directly across from the portrait of Sir Cadogan moaned and creaked, then, suddenly the wall leapt to the side. Dobby head hadn't turned, but was standing directly in front of it, he knew it had been there. Harry wondered how many other passages he knew of, ones that weren't even on the Marauders Map.

"The Zabini lady is saying you is knowing about the fight because of her," he said quietly. "She is seeing me and pulling me to the side to say she is finding out something else sir. She is not being able to see you so she is asking Dobby to tell you. She is saying that the attack sir is a... distraction sir so that the... the man who is He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is doing other things. One of those things is the Weazy sir, he is attacking the Weazy in Mungo's because he is trying to hurt you sir by hurting her."

"An attack?" Sir Cadogan asked in the background gleefully, but Harry ignored him. What Zabini had said was almost too much and he was suddenly wondering what her true intentions were. But then, he was still wondering about the attack on Hogwarts, there didn't seem to be any rational reason for it, was it possible that it was only a diversion so that he could get other things done? Dumbledore had notified the Aurors already and they would surely come in force. Perhaps they'd be leaving something under-guarded so that Voldemort could steal it.

There was the question of whether Mrs. Weasley was going to be attacked, and Harry wasn't sure if he could take the chance. But then Blaise knew she was in St. Mungo's. Ron had only known because she'd been headed there after dropping him off. If she was in trouble he wasn't going to stop and let her get hurt, she as after all the closest thing he had to a mother.

"Can you come too Dobby?"

"Dobby must sir," he sad sadly, "Dobby must take Harry Potter to Saint Mungo's sir, but he is not able to go with him while they is in the Hogwarts grounds. We is needing to go outside the magic area and apparating from there sir. But Dobby is needing to stay too sir," he huffed, indecisively, "Dobby is needing to make sure no one is getting through the barriers sir, Dumbledore has charged him with this task.

Harry sighed, he hated to go completely alone, but if Dobby was in charge of helping keep the castle safe it was better that he stay. Harry would go do his best and see if he could possibly save Mrs. Weasley. If this passage did lead outside the castle grounds he could do it himself. He had been to Saint Mungos before, so he was sure he wouldn't have too difficult a time getting there. "Stay Dobby, I can get there myself," he said and paused as he heard the galloping of hooves. When he turned to the portrait Sir Cadogan and his stead were gone.

"Are the rest of the students safe?" Harry asked when he turned back to Dobby. "Did Dumbledore really put them all in the same place?"

Dobby nodded. "He is listening to Harry Potter sir, he is thinking it is a good plan and he is moving many of the students even while the slept. No one is even knowing they is gone sir. It is like they is in their own rooms," Harry smiled and wondered exactly how big the Room of Requirements could become, it seemed that it had gotten quite a bit larger than it was physically. Maybe – if he couldn't go outside, they could use the room for a Quidditch pitch.

"Then, before you go make sure no one gets in please tell the other DA member that there are Dementors and they need to practice their Patronus charms as much as possible, just in case. And, tell them that I believe in them – and tell them I'll be alright, but don't tell them I've left," Harry said, staring at Dobby who was beginning to tremble. His head bobbed from side to side and he looked down at the floor when Harry finally heard a noise.

A cloak whipped in the darkness as a draft caught it and Harry turned to the slight noise. "It's alright, I'll personally make sure that the Dementors never make it anywhere close to that room. I can form quite a Patronus when there is need for it," said a figure who stood in the darkness a few feet from Harry. "Don't worry about any of them. You need to worry about making sure you get there and back safely. I do think there is little time to waste, hurry along."

Harry turned back to Dobby who was trembling so much that Harry himself almost shivered. It was disturbing that the teacher could move upon them so effortlessly and so silently. "Pierre," Harry said and he placed a hand on Dobby's shoulder. "You and I have to have a talk soon."

"Pierre?" asked Hadwin, thinking for a long moment. "Ah, Pierre! Such memories that name brings. So you know the truth. It is such a pity that you're mind is so strong, that you won't let me help mold it. But, it is not the time to discuss such things. For now there is work to be done. I trust you're not going to allow yourself to be trapped in that little cage any longer?" he asked, smiling brightly. Harry had to look away because the smile was so disarming. It had a lull behind it, and it was hard to stay angry at Hadwin when he smiled like that.

"Leave me alone," Harry demanded, keeping from eye contact but still staring at Hadwin. Dobby was still trembling beside him. Lupin appeared at the end of the hallway and Hadwin turned to face him. Harry wanted to stay, but he was afraid Lupin would try and stop him. "Tell Dumbledore where I've gone," he said to Dobby and then turned and fled into the open door.

The door closed behind him and with it went the light from the castle, but there was an ambient light that lit the dreary hallway. Not taking any time to allow for Lupin to catch up to him Harry started down the steps two at a time until he'd reached the bottom. He didn't hear anyone pursuing him, but he still needed to save Mrs. Weasley and the longer he spent in the tunnel the less likely it was that he'd get their in time. After several minutes of running Harry stopped and decided to try and apparate, hoping he'd gotten far enough from the castle that he could.

Closing his eyes he focused on the room he'd seen Mr. Weasley in, but he remembered Tonks there as well, and it brought other memories. When he stepped forward it wasn't Mrs. Weasley that he appeared next to, but Tonks instead. He hadn't known he could apparate to a persons side without knowing where they were, and he was certain he'd never been to wherever it was that Tonks was at now.

"Harry!" she said, surprised when she saw him. "How the hell..." but Harry closed his eyes, he'd talk to Tonks later. He concentrated hard on the room and then concentrated on Mrs. Weasley instead, trying to remember the hug she'd given him the year before, right before he'd gone to the ministry for his hearing. He stepped forward and felt a tug and was gone again, but he felt someone behind him and he turned and saw Tonks gripping his hand.

When they appeared in the hospital something was already happening, people were screaming and shouting, Healers were running everywhere trying to calm everyone down. After looking around and not seeing Mrs. Weasley Harry grabbed one of the Healers forcefully, almost yanking the poor woman off her feet. "Mrs. Weasley, where is she?" he asked, as if expecting that the Healer would know. But the Healer looked at him with utter bewilderment and tried to pull away from his grasp. Harry started to say something else but he felt Tonks grip his hand tighter.

"Is she in trouble?" she asked, whispering in his ear. Harry nodded and Tonks pulled him to the side. The Healer looked at him angrily, but took off down the hall again a moment later.

"She's going to be attacked... because of me. Voldemort is trying to get her because she means something to me. I have to find her, we need to get her out of here," he said, pushing out from the wall and reaching to grab another Healer.

Tonks held him back. "It's alright," she said, "I know where she is, she's just around the corner."

Squeezing Tonks's hand Harry found some of the courage he lost with the chaos and nodded his head. "Alright, let's go get her then."

Mrs. Weasley was in the corner of her room looking severely distraught. The color was gone from her face and her hair was a mess, but when she saw Tonks and Harry she began to look even worse. "They really are Death Eaters then?" she asked almost trancelike. Harry rushed forward and grabbed her, waiting for Tonks to join them. He planned on apparating away with both of them. Tonks didn't take his hand though and when Harry looked up at her she seemed to be ready to fight. "Go," she said quickly, "I'll hold them off until they can't follow your apparition signature."

"But," Harry said and Tonks shook her head.

"Just go, I've got a job to do here."

"Tonks," Harry said, "I'm not leaving you, there's probably two dozen of them, and they're only coming for Mrs. Weasley, when they find she isn't here they'll leave before they get caught."

She just shook her head and told him to go again. It didn't seem like Harry was going to be able to convince her. Mrs. Weasley was no help at all, she seemed to have taken something and still wasn't quite really aware of what was happening around her. She was barely coherent at all and hadn't said a word besides her first question.

"Now Harry," Tonks commanded, staring at him with every bit of hostility she could muster. "You're job is to save Mrs. Weasley, mine's to fight the Death Eaters and that's only harder with you around."

The words stung and Tonks regretted saying them as much as Harry hated hearing them, but it was enough for Harry to nod his acceptance of the situation. He wondered where he could take her, and only one place came to mind where they would be completely safe from the Death Eaters and Voldemort.

Closing his eyes and taking a step forward Harry dragged Mrs. Weasley through the hole and they appeared in burgundy room. "Well I don't suppose that you're just dropping by to say hello," a sarcastic voice said behind him.

•


	17. Suprises and Disguises

Chapter 17

• Surprises and Disguises •

"Mum?" Fred Weasley asked, astonished. "What happened?" he asked as he stepped forward.

Harry tried to pull her to her feet but had trouble doing it, his legs starting to feel weak beneath him. Luckily, Fred seemed strong enough to hold her and pulled her to the side of the room.

George appeared through a curtain in the wall. "What's going on— " he started to ask, but paused, smiling when he saw Harry. "How the bloody hell did you get back here?" he asked, then just shook his head. "Never underestimate you I guess. That's what you-know-who keeps on doing—and why he keeps failing you know. Have you tried those rings yet? We were just discussing those a little—"

"Shut up George, mum's hurt," Fred said from the side where he was trying to position Mrs. Weasley on the couch. George blinked and turned to them, staring. He dropped the box he was holding and ran forward to help.

"They were attacking St. Mungo's," Harry heaved after Mrs. Weasley had been laid down on a couch. "She's got some potion in her I think, she's not acting normal, but I have to go now," he said, thinking about Tonks. She was the only person that the Death Eaters would target now, since she was an Auror. They easily had to outnumber her if the hospital staff was in such a panic, he had to get back and help even if she didn't want it.

Fred and George seemed to dimly respond to his comment, but they were busy trying to make their mom more comfortable, so Harry just focused again, trying to make sure that he'd land next to Tonks this time. Wand in hand he thought about a spell to use as he stepped into the hole he'd made.

The hospital already seemed quieter than it had the last time he'd entered into it. He was standing in an open area, bodies scattered everywhere on the floor, most of them Death Eaters. Behind him Tonks groaned, he recognized the voice but when he turned he was staring at a little girl. "Are you alright?" he asked, bending over her. "What happened?"

Tonks resumed her normal form as she cautiously opened her eyes. "Hey," she said with a lopsided grin, "it worked." Then, she tried to stand and ended up falling back into the chair with a laugh, dragging Harry along with her. "So you came back to save me?" she asked huskily as they stared at each others eyes. "Even after what I said?"

Harry attempted to crawl off her, not sure why he felt so odd about the situation, but Tonks held him tight. "I'm sorry," she said, "I didn't really mean to hurt you, I just needed you to get Mrs. Weasley away from here. When the Death Eaters attacked I didn't want to have to worry about hurting anyone else with my counterattack."

"You did all of this?" Harry asked his heart pounding as he stared into Tonks' eyes. "How?"

"Trade secret," she said and started to pull a lightly struggling Harry closer.

The attack on Hogwarts filled Harry's mind though, not the situation he was in. "Dobby," Harry said, "and Hermione and Ron, we need to go save them."

Tonks pushed Harry gently away with a look of mock horror. "Leave it to you to spoil a perfectly good mood," she said huffing. "So where are they and why do they need saving?"

"Hogwarts," Harry said, "it's under attack, didn't you know?"

Surprisingly Tonks shook her head. "I was undercover for the last 4 days trailing someone. You caught me just after I'd apprehended the guy this morning. I couldn't contact anyone until then. How did you do that by-the-way, pop in right beside me?"

Shrugging Harry tried to figure out what they could do. "We could apparate to Hogsmeade and run the rest of the way," he said.

"Yeah right," Tonks muttered. "Harry, how many times have you apparated in the last 20 minutes?"

"Four times," Harry said wondering why it mattered.

"And can you use your wand?" Tonks asked. "Hit me with a leg-locking curse."

His wand already in hand Harry waved it a bit. Tonks wobbled, but stepped forward one foot at a time. "As I suspected, it didn't work. You haven't been practicing apparating, have you?"

"I can't," Harry said in his defense. "I've been at Hogwarts, remember? You can't apparate on the grounds."

"Come on Harry, I don't mean on the grounds, and I know you haven't been able to practice, it's not your fault. But, the more you practice the easier it becomes and the less energy you use. You may have been able to apparate a lot on the island, but you were only going a short distance and you were under the influence of a powerful potion. It's going to take a few minutes for you to be able to use magic successfully again. The more you apparate the more time it'll take to recuperate. We should Floo in."

Though he didn't like it he knew he'd better listen to Tonks, but there was a problem. "Dumbledore said he was going to seal the castle so that people couldn't come and go."

"You're exhausted," Tonks said as she helped Harry stand again. "You're not going to be very much help if you don't rest a bit."

Harry nodded, ignoring her, he had to get back and make sure that the Death Eaters didn't hurt his friends or any of the other students. Tonks whipped out her wand and gripped Harry tight. "This might not be very comfortable,' Tonks said just before Harry felt a jerk in his naval almost like when they used a Portkey. This time it spread throughout him and there was an explosion sound as if it where in the far off distance. When he opened his eyes again they were in Hogsmeade, standing in front of Zonko's.

"What was that?" Harry wondered out loud.

Tonks snickered as she straightened herself back up. "That was called apparating, it's a bit different from whatever it is you're doing, has a little more kick to it, wouldn't you say?"

Ignoring her, Harry turned to start off towards Hogwarts but Tonks grabbed his hand. "Hold it," she commanded and Harry paused. "I told you, you need to rest for a few minutes before you start battling anyone or anything. You're not going to be much help if all you do is run in there and get captured. Hermione'd take my head off for letting you do something so stupid, not to mention Molly's wrath," she shivered. "Don't you dare make me face that!"

"Fine," Harry muttered and sat down.

"How about I take one of those rings of yours and you can tell me when you're up to the task and I'll tell you where the best place to start is," she said when she saw his frown. She knew what it felt like to be left out and hated to do it to Harry, but she was only doing it to make sure he stayed alive.

"Please don't be mad Harry?" she said, her hair flowing to a violent purple as she spoke. Her lips dropped and her eyes turned brown she looked like a mix between a lost puppy dog and a street punk. He couldn't help but smile, only to get one in return.

Slipping the rings off his finger he pulled them apart and handed one to Tonks, activating it. He wasn't sure what to hold them with, but Tonks conjured a set of necklaces with ring clasps that were the slightly too big for the rings. She slipped the ring inside the clasp and it then touched her wand against it, shrinking it so it fit around the ring tightly. She took the second one from Harry and then proceeded to do the same thing until she was holding two necklaces with the rings looking like charms dangling from them.

Once she was done she held up one chain and put it around Harry's neck, tucking it into his shirt for him. "I'll see you later," she whispered and then kissed his cheek. "That's for coming back to save me."

Harry blushed even though he could hear people screaming not too far off and he sighed. "Go show them why they should fear us," he said rather awkwardly and watched as Tonks disappeared. There was nothing he could do but wait... and listen. He took the ring out of his shirt and placed it to his eye watching the battle come into view.

Hundreds of people were running around in black cloaks and white masks, way more than Harry thought there would actually be. There'd been quite a few at St. Mungo's as well, but neither was where Voldemort was. It didn't matter how much control Harry had over his mind, he could still feel it when Voldemort was close or angry even if he didn't see visions. And Voldemort was neither right now.

Where was he? What was he really doing? Harry wondered as he saw even more of the fight come into view. There were Aurors all around fighting, shields coming up all over the place, but there were other things fighting, things not human. There were huge trolls that were swinging their clubs like bats, sending anyone who got close enough off into the distance. Harry was sure that anyone who got full impact of the club wasn't going to be standing up anytime soon. Then Harry saw what he'd been expecting, the Dementors. But, there were only a few of them, not the hundreds that he knew existed, maybe a few dozen. That was what Harry wanted to focus on, he hated the beasts and he wanted to drive them away first, that would definitely help the fight a little. There were other things as well, animals like Harry had never seen in his life.

Something scuffed a stone and Harry shrunk back into the alley way, ignoring the ring for a few minutes. He certainly didn't need to get caught right now.

A kid came running around the corner, starting down the alley and Harry jumped out of the shadows, scaring the boy. "Get in here," Harry whispered quickly, pulling him into the shadows. "Who's out there?" he asked once the boy had stopped breathing so heavily.

"Men in white masks," the boy said, trembling. "They took mum and made her do things, she wasn't herself, and she tried to hurt me. They made her put on a white mask too."

There was a moment's paused and then the boy threw himself into Harry. "Please help mummy, make her better."

Harry clenched his wand and held the boy for a minute then took out the ring again. "Tonks!" he yelled into it. There was no response. He couldn't see anything either, it was as if the world had gone black on the other side. "Shit," he murmured to himself.

"Stay here," he said to the boy as he got slowly to his feet. He pulled up his ring again "Tonks," he said, more quietly this time, waiting to see if she'd respond.

Nothing.

Slowly Harry made his way down the alleyway, trying to make sure it wasn't a trap. If it was then Tonks was going to kill him for being stupid, but he couldn't just let the boy's mother get injured because she was under the influence of some death eater.

Three people were standing at the end of the street, one was dawning black robes, the second was putting on a white mask and the third was turned away from Harry. The second person, a young woman, couldn't have been much older than he was, he could have sworn he'd seen her in the Gryffindor common room before. Groaning Harry ducked back behind the wall before anyone saw him.

"Tonks!" he whispered fiercely into the ring one last time. No answer. "Alright," Harry whispered out loud.

He turned back and glanced where the three had been standing and he saw the last one putting on a black cloak, dropping the robe's she'd been wearing. The third person reached out and did something out of sight and the girl didn't seem to respond except to pause before continuing to put on her cloak. Harry shivered at the thought of what the man might do to her if he weren't about to send them to a battle.

The third man, the one whom Harry assumed was a Death Eater pointed off towards Hogwarts and then turned sharply, heading away from the first two. One of them started to walk towards Hogwarts and the other finished putting on her cloak. Harry waited a few seconds and then dashed after them. Quietly he snuck between the buildings until he was right behind the second girl and he pulled out his wand, tapping her and whispering '_Finite Incantatum_' quickly.

The girl stopped. After a moments pause she turned to Harry, looking dazed, and reached up to pull of her mask. Harry shook his head and put his finger on his mouth. "Just wait for a minute and I'll explain everything to you. Be quiet until then, alright?" The girl nodded.

Instead of spending any special time trying to make sure he could trust her, Harry dashed off after the first person, whom he assumed to be the boys mother. He didn't get to approach her as easily as he had the first. She was already away from the main part of Hogsmeade and so Harry had to approach her out in the open. Of course she heard him and turned, stopping completely. Harry cringed, as he continued forward, hoping he wouldn't have to dodge a spell. "Harry Potter?" she asked, sounding confused.

It took a moment, but Harry recognized the signs of fighting off the Imperius and he raised his wand quickly. "_Finite Incantatum_," he whispered for a second time.

Again there was a pause, but this time when she reached up to take off her mask Harry didn't stop her. "Madam Rosmerta?" he gasped. She looked at him with a blank stare. "What am I...?" she said offhand and Harry shook his head.

"Come on, follow me." She nodded her head, and Harry could see she was trying to think back.

It only took a minute for them to reach the other person, the girl who'd been released first. "That man was a Death Eater and he... he touched me," she said in disgust.

"Yeah," Harry said, "I think they're putting people from the town under the Imperius curse and making them fight the battle going on over at Hogwarts. Since you're all wearing mask I don't think that people will realize they're not Death Eaters. We have to go help them."

The girl looked away, and Harry could tell she was afraid. Madam Rosmerta was clenching her fist. "Your sons alright," Harry said to her. "He's in the alley just down the street." There were visible signs of relief. "How about we do something else instead? I need to go see if I can stop the Death Eaters that are putting people under the Imperius, and someone needs to go and tell the Aurors that they're not fighting Death Eaters," he looked at the girl. "Would you be willing to do that?" he asked. "With the mask and robes you can get past all the others under the Imperius, but you'll have to figure out how to get the Aurors to listen."

The girl blinked back tears, but nodded her head. Madam Rosmerta put her hand on her shoulder. "We'll do it. I just need to go tell my son that he needs to stay hidden until everything's over." Then, after glancing to Harry she smiled. "You sure you're going to be alright?"

Reluctantly Harry nodded. He really didn't want to deal with Death Eaters alone, but he wasn't about to bring anyone into it they couldn't protect themselves. "If you see someone with unnatural hair see if you can get close to her, her name's Tonks - she's a friend of mine and an Auror. If you see her tell her the rings aren't working. She's the only Auror I can be sure of, so if you see her you might want to tell her what's happening."

"Nymphadora Tonks?" asked Madam Rosmerta and Harry couldn't help but form a half-cocked grin.

"Might not want to call her that, it'll get you cursed even if you're trying to help."

Both nodded and Harry took the silence as an agreement. He turned, and began heading down the path the Death Eater had gone a few minutes before. His wand held out, he was trying to remember all of the things Tonks had taught him. It was then he stopped again, in a dark corner, thinking. _Blend in._ That's what Tonks had told him. Wearing a Hogwarts uniform certainly wasn't going to get him anywhere.

Pointing the wand at himself he whispered a spell. "_Vestidaus Muto._" The clothing he was wearing transformed on him, changing into the solid black robes that the Death Eater had been wearing. He reached down and picked up a rock, performing the spell again and placed the bone-white mask on his face.

Something shuffled to his left and Harry turned, wand raised. There was another girl, but this time it was someone he recognized right off the bat. She was hiding between a set of boxes, and hadn't moved until Harry had donned the mask. He could see her face was in shock, but he wasn't worried about her saying anything. "Emily?" he said, forgetting to be quiet.

The face looked even more shocked, and Harry ran over to her. "I was in the shop the other day," he whispered to her. "With blue hair and different eyes, you measured me for Auror Robes."

Emily nodded faintly. "I'm not with the Death Eaters. I'm trying to make sure they don't curse me as soon as they see me. Do you know where any of them are?"

Once again Emily nodded, but not as faintly. She made several motions with her hand, but nothing Harry understood. When he shook his head Emily looked around and then slowly stood up offering her hand to him. Harry looked at it and shook his head. "I won't take you, it's too dangerous."

There was a piercing glare that made Harry shudder, it was even worse than the look Mrs. Weasley used. "No," he said firmly. He wasn't about to let her get hurt because of him. "Just point in the general direction, I'll find them."

It seemed Emily was as stubborn as him though because she jumped to her feet and took off running down the path. Harry ran after her angrily, forgetting needing to change his face as well. He did have the sense to don the mask again.

They slipped through several back alleys before Emily slowed down. She didn't say anything of course, but she made a motion and then pointed towards a doorway that was half open. It looked as if someone had just entered it.

"In there?" Harry asked in a whisper and Emily nodded.

Clutching his wand tightly Harry started forward but Emily grabbed him and shook her head. She pulled him down another side alley and a few minutes later Harry found himself looking at the building from the other side. Emily pointed up at a window that was propped open. Then, bending down she drew out a rough sketch of the building, and made a door where they'd been and two rooms on the side they were on.

After several motions Harry understood what she was trying to say. "Alright, I'll go through the window," he whispered fiercely. From the drawing it looked as if the room he'd be entering was pretty small, and probably not used a lot. It also meant that he could catch the Death Eaters off guard.

There was a distant popping sound from Harry's chest and suddenly the sound of battle could be heard on the other side. "Harry!" a voice came from the ring. "Harry, are you there?"

Harry pulled the ring from his neck wildly, covering it quickly. "Keep it down Tonks," he hissed. "You'll get me caught."

"Your messengers made it to us," Tonks said appreciatively. "We're stopping them a lot faster, but they're still overwhelming by sheer numbers. Some of them have already made it into the castle, we can't keep track of them all... Where are you?"

"I know where the Death Eaters are who are controlling them. Is there an easy way to make them lose control?" he asked, holding the ring somewhere between his ear and mouth. Emily was staring at him, eyes full of wonder.

There was a prolonged pause and a shout. He heard Tonks curse about something she'd tripped over and then heard her directing her speech to him again. "Yeah, there's a lot of ways. The easiest is to knock the caster unconscious and using a dispelling charm on them… You're not going to try it are you? Harry, where in Merlin's name are you!"

"On one of the backstreets of Hogsmeade in front of an old warehouse. I'm going to go in and try to stop the Death Eaters. What's the best dispelling spell to use?"

"Harry! You're not going in alone, I'll come and help."

Shaking his head without thinking Harry stared at the window, if some of the people had gotten into Hogwarts then the students weren't safe. The DA might be able to hold them off for a while, but if they were using unforgivables… "I'm going in, Tonks, and if you don't shut up you're going to get me caught. Just tell me what the best spell to use is."

"Just wait for a few minutes Harry, I'm already headed back. I'll be there, just wait for me," Tonks said desperately.

Harry turned to Emily, covering his ring. "Can you go help her find this place while I go in?" he asked, trying to keep Emily from trying to enter with him. At least she could help be getting Tonks to him as quickly as possible. Harry tapped his wand against the ring, making the sounds from it die down to almost nothing. "Tonks," he said as Emily disappeared down the street. "the girl who helped me get my robe measurements the other day is going to show you where I am. Hurry up."

"Don't you dare go in Harry Potter!" he heard through the ring, but it was barely even more than a whisper, though he doubted very much that it was a whisper on the other side. He'd heard Tonks yell before.

Smiling, he climbed on to the crate and opened the window. He looked back to make sure that no one was behind him. It was of course empty, but he had the creepy feeling that someone else was behind him. Tonks had taught him to trust his instincts and so after he crawled in the old window he crouched down, and then peaked back over the windowsill to see if someone had come out of the shadows or from under an invisibility cloak.

The alleyway remained undisturbed and Harry shook his head, turning back to the task at hand. He was in a storage room just as Emily had drawn out. The room was layered in dust and obviously rarely, if ever, used. Stepping down from the boxes to the floor he kicked up a cloud of the dust and choked, then coughed. He was quick enough to get his arm in front of his mouth to suppress the sound, hoping no one would hear it. He held up a piece of his cloak to his mouth and nose and used them to filter the air as he stepped through the stale room. Briefly he wondered if there was such a thing as an anti-dust charm, and if there was why the owner had failed to use it, but the thought passed when he heard muffled movement beyond the door.

His wand was ready in an instant, but nothing came through the door. More sounds of movement came and went while Harry was completely still, waiting for them to come charging. When he finally stepped forward again he began to hear other sounds, bits and pieces of words until he was able to make out a few through the door. Glancing to his chest, at the ring he wore, Harry took a deep breath and ever so slowly turned the doorknob. If he survived this Tonks was really going to strangle him, but she'd said that people had broken into the castle… if any of them knew about the secret room – which they might – then all the students would be in trouble.

The knob didn't squeak and Harry whispered silent thanks for small miracles. Pulling the door slowly open he found himself looking at a room full of people who were standing, with horrified looks in their eyes, but none of them seemed to be moving at all. "Hurry it up," Harry heard from beyond the people who were directly in front of him. Even without seeing the person he knew who it was. _Wormtail_.

It was hard not to burst through the door at that moment, with curses flying, but Harry was able to maintain his position. '_Never be a target'_ Tonks had told him and he wasn't about to go and do something to get her even angrier. Besides, she knew what she was talking about and he certainly would rather rely on her knowledge than his anger.

Someone caught his eye, and he could see that the person, an older man, looked frightened glancing to the area beside the door. Harry stopped and nodded a silent thank you and the man blinked and looked away.

_Don't ever go in without a plan of some sort, it'll always get shot to shit, but it's still better to have some sort of sketch of what you're going to do, it helps to keep you focused. _More advice from Tonks came. Harry suspected that there were at least two men that were Death Eaters in the room, and that was counting any of the others who'd been put under the Imperius already. One of them was across the room and one of them was probably right next to the door. Harry hoped that the latter hadn't seen the door crack open, because if he had he was going to be in big trouble.

Harry stepped back away from the door, keeping his wand pointed forward and taking a second to think. He needed to be silent, and he needed to be fast. He wished he'd grabbed his invisibility cloak because that might have made things easier, but he didn't have it so he had to improvise. First he went over Tonks' first advice when tailing someone.

'_If you don't want to be heard, don't be heard. It's simple really, just use a strong silencing charm on yourself. If you've got an invisibility cloak, all the better.' _She'd gone on to talk about how it was a bad idea if you were trying to blend in, silencing yourself made you stand out even more in a crowd, everyone made sounds and if a person didn't subconsciously hear them while a person was around, the mind made a point of it. Harry took another step back from the door and whispered the charm, making sure to focus as much as possible.

'_If you're compromised or attacking you will have to do what is necessary to stop the target from getting away. **Do not **limit yourself to just magic, physically fighting someone is never out of the question. Usually when you're after a target, the best way to capture them is to surprise them – like what you did at the headquarters, knocking a bookshelf on them... That's not a compliment, Harry, and I don't want to see you ever disobey me again! Anyway, sometimes simple curses are as effective as complex ones.' _

'_Now, if you're working with multiple targets try to keep them from communicating. There's a few small protections that the…'_

Harry blinked and smiled. Simple was best, he certainly hoped that she was right. All he had to do now was think of a simple charm to disable his opponents. They'd used some sort of petrifying charm, so why couldn't he?

When he approached the door again there were three different curses that he was thinking about. He edged the door open little by little until he could see that there was a person sitting next to the door, but fortunately enough for him, they were asleep. Harry smiled and tapped on their shoulder with his wand, whispering the petrifaction curse. Even if the person woke he wouldn't be able to do anything. Just to be safe Harry also silenced them.

"Well hurry it up. He'll be angry if we don't get the rest of the villagers out as soon as possible. You rounded up all the extras?" The second man, who had to be Wormtail asked. Harry looked in that direction, but couldn't see past the group of people that stood in front of him. There were actually quite a few people there and Harry wondered exactly how they'd gotten there in the first place. It couldn't have been the work of three death eaters.

Another voice, this one soft, female, answered with a snappish "yes." Harry groaned; he didn't like fighting women, it just wasn't right, but she was a Death Eater, and he could certainly make an exception. After all, Belatrix Lestrange was a woman and one of the worst Death Eaters that Harry knew of. The voice continued, "There were a few stragglers, I just cursed them and sent them out to fight, though I seem to be having some control problems right now, I can't send them any new commands. I think they fought it off."

Harry grinned smugly. Something out the front door crashed and Harry winced, hoping it wasn't who he thought it was. When he heard a yell, he knew it was Tonks – she really had come quick.

Well, it was all for the better. Harry stood tall, hoping that both of the Death Eaters that he could hear had been distracted, along with any of the others that might be up there. Fortunately enough for him there was only one more, and all of them were staring at the entrance. "They've found us," The woman snapped. "We can't let the battle end yet. If any Aurors make it back," She paused. "Kill them," she hissed and some of the people moved forward.

There was no other option, Harry knew what was happening, and since Tonks was coming to rescue him she wasn't being careful enough, and probably hadn't even thought to bring reinforcements. As he ran along the crowd of people Harry canceled the Imperius curse as much as possible, repeating Finite Incantatem over and over again. He was lucky he'd put the silencing charm on himself, because by the time he'd gotten to the front he'd been yelling constantly for the past minute and a half.

No one seemed to notice him, or think that he was out of the ordinary. They thought that he was the Death Eater who had been stationed in the back, the one Harry had petrified. So, when he approached the first Death Eater, he was able to free him without any problems at all. That left only two others, the woman and Wormtail. The next in line, the woman who'd been speaking earlier, turned to him. Her mask had been pulled down revealing a very attractive woman with a nasty grin. "Don't trust the slug to defend you this time?" she said with a laugh.

No wand was raised, and she didn't even think it was odd that he'd just cursed the Death Eater laying on the ground. "You didn't kill him, did you?" she asked with a sneer. When Harry shook his head she smiled again. "You know," she said half seductively, throwing off Harry's perception of her, "he's not going happy when he comes around. It'd probably be a good idea not to be around."

When the woman turned back to the doorway Harry breathed a sigh of relief, but didn't raise his wand. The other Death Eater standing, a pudgy man whom Harry knew was most likely Peter, stood in the distance watching him intently. Harry didn't like the stare, and he turned away from it pretending to be ready to curse whatever came through the door. The ploy didn't seem to work, because Wormtail still continued to stare.

Something shook the door with a tremendous bang and Harry couldn't help but turn his attention away from Wormtail for a second. Another blow landed, and still the door held tight. Harry raised his wand in the air and muttered a curse, throwing it at the young woman who'd laughed. She wasn't ready for it, but even after taking the full brunt of it she didn't falter. It was almost as if she'd just absorbed the spell.

Turning to Harry her lips turned to form a wicked smirk. "So, another Auror huh?" she said with an obvious amount of distaste for Aurors. Her wand flicked and before Harry could even shield himself, he was being thrown across the room. The mask that had been covering his face was broken in half and it fell from his face.

"Potter," she hissed, more snakelike than before. "Of course it's 'Potter to the rescue'. Oh, I've heard so much about you, makes killing you sound even more fun than playing games with the Aurors. It'd be easiest to just kill you know, but sadly I must wait, our Lord surely has other things to do to you. When Pettigrew told us you'd escaped the castle, we all wondered where to." The glance that the woman gave to the other Death Eater as she spoke was a definite indication that the person was Wormtail. Harry growled and tightened his grip on his wand, trying to stand again. He hated Wormtail, he hated Voldemort and he hated Death Eaters. "Seems he doesn't know _all _the passages in and out of the castle. I never thought you'd come to us!" Mad laughter accompanied her last statement, making Harry shiver reflexively.

"_Expelliarmus!_" Harry shouted as he stood, ignoring the pain in his back and legs. The curse shot across the row of people moving forward and one of them stepped into it, getting blown away, their wand flying towards Harry. There was an evil laugh beyond the crowd and several of them turned on him, raising their wands to curse him. Another resounding bang filtered through the room and Harry felt the vibrations echo through the floor. "Finite Incantatem!" he yelled several times over, trying to release the people. He wondered briefly what had happened to the others but didn't think about it for long.

Some of the people in front slowed and Harry used the time to dive forward, slipping to the right and running as fast as he could past them. Most of them reacted slowly, their hands never quite reaching him as he passed by. The few who acted quickly never got a strong grip and he was always able to tear free. Harry continued yelling the spell as he ran, trying to free them all from the curse; he knew what it was like to be forced to do something he didn't want to do, and right now anything he did to stop them would help him and hinder the Death Eaters' plans.

"So, _wee-baby-Potter _has come to join the party, now?" The woman asked as Harry exploded through the people who'd surrounded him. "The brave Gryffindor, riding to the rescue--"

Harry had to scramble out of the way as a spell sliced through the air, blowing up the floor next to him. He coughed and continued to roll trying to find a good place to get to his feet again. Another spell jetted towards him and Harry rolled back the other way as it exploded where he'd been.

"Rolling around on the ground like a _dog_, Potter? I thought that was your godfather's role to play… oh, my mistake, he no longer has one, does he?" she cacckled with laughter and Harry stopped, leaping to his feet angrier than before. Instead of using a spell to detain her he charged right into her, rolling right as another spell was fired at him, but still charging forward.

When he struck her, it was almost as if he'd hit her with a spell. She was thrown several feet back and as she fell her head struck a box, immediately knocking her unconscious. She lay crumpled on the floor, and Harry turned away from her. Someone mumbled something behind him and several people gasped. Harry ignored them at the moment. "Peter!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, charging after the fleeing Death Eater. He waved his wand, and released the silencing spell from himself, yelling at Peter again. He wasn't about to let him get away. The cloak fell to the ground, empty and a rat scurried out from under it heading towards the rows of boxes on a far wall.

"_ACCIO WORMTAIL!" _Harry screamed at the top of his lungs and the rat lifted into the air and started flying towards him. Another bang echoed through the room and several of the people shouted and moved away from the door. Harry stuffed Wormtail into his pocket and then grabbed the ring quickly. "Tonks!" he yelled through the ring, "quit the attack, I already stopped the Death Eaters."

She didn't respond, though, and the door shuddered again. It flew open and three Aurors came running through, none of them recognizable. One of them immediately fired a curse at Harry who realized he was wearing the Death Eater robes still. "Don't!" Several of the people shouted. "He's not one of them!"

The Auror turned on the people, all of whom stepped back, and he glanced back to Harry. The rat Peter tried to crawl out of Harry's pocket and he grabbed it before it took off. "Hey, do you know how to force an animagus to transform?" Harry asked the Auror who was watching him suspiciously. The Auror nodded and Harry held out his hand. "Can you do it now?"

One of the other Aurors stepped forward, "I'll do it," he said quickly. "Cover me, Trill."

When the first Auror nodded the second man raised his wand, and then paused. "You're Harry Potter?" He asked and Peter squealed, wriggling in Harry's hand, trying to escape. Harry held him tight though as he bit his hand several times. Harry nodded.

"Did Tonks come with you guys?" he asked quickly, wondering where she was.

"Around back, the girl that led us told her you'd gone through the back. She went that way as well."

Peter bit down hard again and this time Harry finally let go, but the Auror was quicker, stopping his descent with a quick levitation spell. "Let's get this done with now, shall we?" he asked as Peter rose into the air, the silver paw glinting in the air. Harry listened, but something crashed in the background and he turned to it as the Auror spoke. When he turned back Wormtail was screaming in mid air, jerking convulsively. He dropped to the floor, squealing loudly.

It was exactly as it had been before at the shrieking shack; the rat Wormtail jerked and a head shot out, arms and legs following quickly. Watching it was like watching a balloon inflating, his head expanded quickest, but his arms and legs followed soon after, expanding until there was a short, but full grown man standing before them, cringing. He wasn't as shrunken as he'd been beforehand, he was flush, and his eyes were bloodshot. Peter was quick, even for a large man. But, as he raised his wand to curse the Auror Harry saws the Auror was quicker and Peter was petrified instantly, his wand dropping to the ground.

"Merlin's beard…" one of the Aurors said, as Peter's wand finished bouncing. "That's Peter Pettigrew," he continued, gasping. "He's alive."

"He was the one that murdered all those people," Harry spat. "Not Sirius Black; it was all a setup."

The Auror turned to look at Harry, his eyes wide, and then without speaking he turned to look back at Peter. Something caught Harry from behind, and he found that he couldn't move or speak again. "Not such a smart one, are we, Potter," a voice whispered and there was a sudden jerk in his stomach. Harry's last thought was that it was a Portkey, and wondered faintly where he was being taken.

• Last Edited 07/09/2004 •


	18. Twins

Chapter 18

• Twins •

"Hello again Harry Potter," a voice said quietly from in front of him. Harry still was frozen, unsure what was happening or where he was. The room was dark, and musty, but there was a tiny speck of light just in front of them but nothing else. The darkness concealed the voice.

Something purred in his ear and Harry shivered at the unnatural sound. "Want to play before the others come 'round? Surely the great Harry Potter wouldn't pass up the chance to learn about where he is, after all, he _does_ want to become an Auror now, doesn't he?" the voice in front of him asked.

Even trying with ever ounce of strength he had Harry couldn't even budge his mouth to speak. Something smacked him hard on the back, and he tumbled forward. Halfway down the stiffness that had held him released and Harry reached out to stop his fall, accidentally letting go of his wand. It struck the ground but immediately flew out from beneath him, the girl in front of him having summoned it.

Harry didn't draw his second wand, he didn't want her to know he had one, but he did tuck into a ball and glance up to see his captor. No one was there, his wand was floating in mid air.

"Invisibility cloak," Harry said sighing.

"Old trick, but it certainly works out in a pinch," the voice said and a shimmer revealed that whoever was under the cloak was moving. Harry didn't have to wait fore very long before the cloak was removed and he found he was looking at a familiar face. "You!" he said, surprised. "But I just knocked you unconscious."

"Afraid not," said a voice came from behind Harry's again; the girl beneath the cloak had yet to speak still. Lights burst through the room as several torches were immediately ignited, and Harry turned to look at the girl who was talking. "That was me you hit, and hasn't anyone ever taught you not to hit girls? Shame on you, maybe we should teach you some manners."

Something snapped and Harry felt himself get slammed into the ground like he'd fallen from the ceiling even though he was only inches from it. "That was quite a punch you had there," the voice continued, but Harry couldn't look up, he felt the sole of a shoe pressed against his head, forcing his face into the cold pavement.

"You're quite the hero aren't you Harry?" asked the voice as Harry felt the foot press harder against his head. "Risking your life to save a group of witches and wizards who never did anything for you. I bet it gets you off, doesn't it? Makes you feel better than them?"

Something cold pressed against his right arm and there was a tearing sound. He could feel the cold draft of the room higher and higher on his arm and wondered why she was cutting his cloak from his arms. "Maybe we should remove his hand, see how well he does at hitting woman without it?" The girl in front of him said, but stopped, shaking her head, and with it her whole body.

"I want to play with him before you mar him," the girl continued, as if she hadn't said the first comment. She seemed to be talking to herself. "It's my right, he marked me, not you."

"Marked?" Harry said into the ground, it was difficult to speak, but they did hear him. He wasn't sure what to make of the two girls, the one in front hadn't spoken at all

The foot on his head let up a little and he found himself jerked into the air, held above the two. "Come on," the girl said, a glint of sadistic playfulness in her eyes. "You don't want to play? But we already got off to such a good start." She turned and lifted her chin to show a discolored spot on her chin that was turning purple.

The other girl moved and Harry saw a knife from the corner of his eye. He tried to jerk back, but found he couldn't do more than wiggle in mid air. In a second and with no more indications that she was even using the knife, the right sleeve of his robe was on the floor. He looked down and watched as his shoes were slipped off his feet. Then, the girl moved behind him Harry was suddenly horrified, his other wand was in his left sleeve and if he lost that he'd be helpless.

"Come on, ask me a question and I'll give you an answer… and _something else._" The girl in front of Harry whispered. "Don't mind my sisters, she's just getting everything prepared.

"Prepared for what?" Harry asked immediately and the girl smiled wickedly. "Oh, already getting into the fun stuff. I thought you might like to know about the place, or why we didn't take you away immediately. I did know you were there after all, my sister and I can… communicate. She told me you were coming in the back before you even made it through the window."

"But, I guess I'll just have to answer your question, I said I would."

Somehow his second sleeve slipped loose and he felt it slid from his arm and onto the ground. It didn't hit the ground hard, but it was apparent something was inside it. He grimaced as his captor stooped in front of him and picked it up. "Oh," she said shivering, "another wand. You were more prepared than we thought." Harry wasn't sure how to interpret what he was seeing her do, it looked as if she was happy, not because he'd lost his wand, but because he'd had it.

"Were you going to use that on me?" she asked after she had shivered again. "Curse me until I'm bleeding and half dead?"

Harry struggled again and felt the knife touch his skin on the back of his robe. He hadn't even felt it being cut, until that moment. It didn't take long to realize what the girl behind him was doing. He struggled again, but it only shook his robes more until they'd almost come off altogether.

They did drop off a moment later as the girl finished the cut she'd been making.

"We're going to have some fun… I could describe it to you, but you didn't ask for details now, did you." the girl said as the robe dropped off. The cut the girl had been making had finally reached the neck. Harry was glad he'd worn something underneath his clothing because otherwise he'd have been completely naked in front of them. As it was all he was wearing was an undershirt and some boxers. The cool wind of the chamber they were in didn't make matter worse, he shivered and gooseflesh rose all over his body.

The girl in front of him moved to the side and disappeared out of Harry's sight, he tried to turn to her but found he couldn't. A finger caressed the back of his neck and Harry shivered again, but not from the cold. The two necklaces he wore moved as the finger pushed them up his neck.

"Ooh, another scar, this one looks like it hurt," she said as her fingers traced to the top of his shirt. There was a brief tearing sound and the shirt dropped away from him. Her finger continued, tracing slowly down the backbone, following the main branch of the scar. "This didn't come from a physical attack did it? It looks far too random, did a curse do this to you?"

Harry didn't answer.

Something sharp penetrated the back of his neck, where the scar was centered on and Harry screamed in pain. "You answer my question, I'll answer another of yours."

"Yes," Harry groaned as the painful feeling ebbed.

"What's your next question then?" The girl asked, her hands returning to tracing the scar, strand by strand.

"Where am I?"

One of the strands of the scar twirled up to his ear and her fingers followed it softly, making Harry turn red, the feelings he was getting were becoming less and less focused on getting out. As the finger left his head Harry felt a soft breath against his ear instead of a finger. "You're in a cell in the dungeons of our Dark Lords Lair. It's been protected by every charm imaginable to keep people in and undisturbed. Apparating will just splinch you and make it more fun to play with you." The voice said, breathing softly in his ear still. It moved away from him and then was suddenly in his other ear, the finger tracing another of the scars on his back.

"Was it painful, did it make you scream?" the voice asked as it found the back of his neck again to trace another line.

"More than the Cruciatus curse," Harry replied, flinching at her touch. The finger paused as he spoke and he heard another purring sound.

"What was the curse?" The voice asked, not so close to his ear, but it sounded as if it were trembling.

Harry shook his head though, refusing to answer. "I get a question first," he said as insistently as possible. It was hard to think about anything else right now, but he was keeping more focused than most teenagers would have been able to.

"Alright then," the woman said and the finger continued down one of the longer strands in his back. With a jerk he found that he was completely naked in mid air and he felt helpless. It helped him focus more.

"Why are you doing this to me?"

There was a combined set of giggling, it wasn't girlish giggling, it was darker, more evil. "Why we're going to have fun with you. It's more fun to play with a man… or in this case, a boy, when they're exposed. Besides, you've got nothing to be embarrassed about."

Harry tried to move again, to cover himself up because of how exposed he felt, but wasn't able to move at all.

"So," the girl said. "Which curse did that?"

"Avada Kedavra," Harry whispered.

That certainly caught their attention. Neither of them touched him for a long moment, or even breathed, it was like everything had stopped for a moment. The moment passed and Harry heard them both gasp.

"You're not lying, are you?" the girl asked. "You really survived another one."

Someone appeared not far beyond the door, a hunched over man wearing a cloak. "He did," the man said and Harry recognized the voice. He wasn't sure where from, but he'd heard it before.

"Put something on him," the figure said, "I really don't care to see him displayed for the entire world."

"Jealous, are we?" the girl asked. Harry tried to pull his knee's up again to cover himself, but still found himself immobile.

The man shook his head, but it still stayed under the hood. "The others are returning, and this is not the proper way to present him, is it?"

"Go away, we want to have fun," the girl said, pouting. Harry didn't think it was real pouting, but it was pretty obvious that they wanted the man to leave.

The man shook his head, even though he'd gone as far as the doorway. "You're not allowed to have fun if you don't share. And you're going to anger _him_ if the boy is hurt."

"We captured him. We should be able to have fun with him," the girl said.

"You're really set on having fun with them aren't you? Well, don't say I didn't warn you," the man said and disappeared around the corner.

A hand snaked around Harry's neck and he felt the breath in his ear again. "We're all alone now, do you want to have some fun? I can tell this is turning you on, you can't hide it." As another hand slipped around the front of Harry's stomach, he jerked involuntarily. His hand tried to move, to grasp something for support, but there was nothing there and he went into the memory floating in mid air.

_He was crying. Everything was done and over with and he couldn't help but cry. Someone had their arms wrapped around his neck and chest with their head against the back of his holding him for security._

"_I couldn't help them," he said, his hands still trembling. "Sebastian and Edward, James and Judith, they were there through it all and I couldn't protect them. They all died because I wasn't strong enough."_

"_You defeated him though, you saved the rest of them and helped make the world a better place. Isn't that enough?" the woman asked. Harry immediately recognized that it was Deborah, the person who'd helped him in a previous memory._

_Beyond him there was a castle that was almost completely demolished, a black fire burning it. The air still stank of blood and some other foul odor that seemed to be emanating from the castle. Voices seemed to come and go with the wind, but Harry saw no one, he just continued to stare at the castle, tears flowing down his face._

_The grip on him loosened and then left, he turned to see why and found that Deborah was on the ground, looking much paler than usual. She smiled as tears dripped onto her face. "It was worth it you know, saving everyone. My children are still alive, and they're going to have a good life without Grindelwald around to terrorize them. Take care of them for me, please."_

_After several strong coughs and her body trembling there was a gurgling sound and then all was quiet. Harry looked at the woman, crestfallen, almost beyond any help. His best friend, his confidant, was dead she'd come to aid him in making sure that Grindelwald had died._

_Picking her up delicately, he walked her to the place where Deborah had buried James. They owned the whole area, and no one would no any different now that the war was over. Decidedly and slowly, holding back his tears as best as possible, he dug the hole where he would bury his best friend. Her two children, at two and four, were still far too young to understand death, so when they did he would bring them back to the gravestone._

_After placing the body and leaving charms to keep the redcaps from getting to the grave Harry transfigured a piece of stone into a grave marker. _

_James and Deborah Potter_

_Loving husband and wife, mother and father, friends to all._

_Forever remembered._

_He scrawled on the stone, tears flowing down his face._

_Harry didn't know what to think as he stared at the gravestone of his great-grandparents. He knew it was them intuitively, as if the memory connected to other knowledge. Had he been in his own body he would have cried as Dumbledore cried now. Still, in his own mind he had to choke back the tears. He didn't know what to think or say, not that he could do much of either. Still, he felt as if he needed to say something over their graves and let them know that their children would have made them proud_

"I told you he was just having a fit, it wasn't anything we did," someone's voice cut through the haze of the memory. He remembered the voice, and as he associated it with the face everything that had happened to him came flooding back. He could feel the cold stone against his naked body and he pulled himself into a ball, hoping they wouldn't display him as they had earlier.

"He'll be fine," someone else said; a voice that Harry didn't recognize. "Just leave him here, we'll send some elves to get him dressed to meet our lord."

"But we want to do it," the female's voice whined. "We still haven't gotten to play with him."

There was an evil laugh, and the door shut even with the female's voice protesting it. "You'll get your time with him…" the voice said coldly. "We all will."

•


	19. Torment

Chapter 19

• Purgatory •

Harry waited until the voices had faded down the hall before he moved at all. His clothing was nearby and he immediately scrambled towards it, pulling the majority of it on without even a thought. The room he was in was still the same, but the doorway was now blocked with an iron grate. Looking around Harry found that there was nothing except stone walls and darkness.

Still, the ring he'd worn around his neck was still there and Harry pulled it to him. "Tonks," he whispered into it desperately. "Tonks are you there?"

"Won't work right now," a voice said and Harry turned to find that the girls had somehow crept up on him in the moments he'd dressed. The accent had changed and was suddenly very American. For some reason the girl reminded Harry of Riana, but he wasn't sure exactly why, it was more than just the accent though.

"Remember how my sister was following you?" the girl continued smartly. "Well she saw you use that communication ring, while we can't figure out how it works, we were able to block it from working for now. It's quite simple, there's no way to call for help."

It was all Harry could do to keep from breaking down right there. He felt like a wreck, mostly because he wasn't in the best shape right now and then there was the little voice in the back of his mind that told him Tonks would kill him if he survived this.

"If _we_ were you, we'd be getting some rest right now; you want to be in good shape when facing his lordship."

"Voldemort?" Harry asked and regretted it immediately as he felt a shoe bury itself into his stomach area.

"Never call him by his name, you unworthy scum," the girl said, and Harry groaned, curling up tightly again after the foot was retracted.

"You are stuck here," the girl said pointedly.

Harry closed his eyes, cringing involuntarily, the pain of admitting she was right was worse than the pain from the kick he'd just received. The girl hadn't lied to him yet, and she didn't seem to intent to. No, she wanted to tell him the truth, if only to see him suffer from the knowledge of the hopelessness of it all.

Still, Harry closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to picture somewhere safe, somewhere far away from the musty cell he was stuck, somewhere near Tonks. At first it was normal, he could feel the magic well up inside of him and he could see the tunnel start to form, but it was incomplete, and he couldn't open it to step through, it simply stayed just beyond his grasp. Signing dejectedly, he opened his eyes again to find that only one of the girls was in front of him, the other had disappeared out of his field of vision.

Instantly Harry's head snapped to both sides, the left and then the right, to find that she'd moved to the far corner of the cell and was staring from the shadows with an arrogant smirk on her face.

"You're a real quick study, aren't you? And you movements ever so fast and smooth, I'm sure it'll make you more fun to play with. I think that it might anger some of the others though. I always wondered how exactly you were able to get away from the Dark Lord the first time, but I think I understand now. What is it that you were doing just now, regrouping? I assure you that no manner of mental protection or meditation will from feeling all the pain that will be inflicted upon you. No, we have you locked away in a place that they'll never find you. There is no escape from here, and trying to apparate within the anti-apparating ward as strong as these will likely get you splinched. We wouldn't want you to ruin such a beautiful body like yours, no not such a wonderfully abused toy."

"What are you names?" Harry asked quietly, feeling the pain of the immanent defeat looming over him.

"We are called Cin."

"Both of you?" Harry asked incredulously, but still quiet. "How do you tell each other apart?"

"We have no need for separate names, we rarely are apart and I am the only one that others speak to."

"Didn't your parents give you different names when you were born?" Harry asked before thinking.

The girls exchanged glances, and Harry wasn't sure how to take it when they looked back at him with fire burning in their eyes. "We do not acknowledge the muggle names that we were given when we where born," Cin said crisply.

Even though something deep in his mind told him not to say anything Harry couldn't stop the words from tumbling out of his mouth. "You're _muggle-born?"_ he asked, gasping.

Something hard struck him across the back of the head and he collapsed to the ground with a whimper.

•

No one was around when he opened his eyes again. Looking hopelessly at the rings that hung around his neck Harry sighed then pushed himself into a sitting position. His whole body ached, though he wasn't sure exactly why, he knew a spell had hit him even though he hadn't heard it. Still, it hadn't been painful even though it felt that way now.

A rustle of movement caught Harry's attention and he turned to see only the empty walls of his prison. He dismissed the sound as one of the small mice that were disappearing out a tiny barred area. He'd noticed them twice out of the corner of his eye, but didn't think anything of it at the time. Still, he had to investigate it and so he got to his knees and crawled over to the opening. It was black beyond, as if the light was just drained away and so he ignored it, moving to the more important things like the rest of the cell. If he wanted to escape he was going to have to find a way out and after going through dozens and dozens of secret passages in Hogwarts he thought that there might be something in the cell perhaps.

Groggily Harry stood, shaking away the clouded mind, and then moved to the front of the cell next to the door. The rock walls were damp and cold, he suspected that they were somewhere near water because of the amount of moisture that seemed to be on the cell walls. There was also a good deal of moss that had grown in between the stones. It was also extremely likely that the wards laced through the walls, the same wards that would keep him from going anywhere or contacting anyone.

Starting at the base of the wall next to the door Harry's hands moved inch by inch to make sure that there wasn't some sort of secret entrance to a passage. After a full hour of carefully running his hands over every single stone he could reach he had found nothing except two words that had been scraped into the stone – a name that had long ago been covered in moss.

Something moved down the hallway and Harry turned to the sound, facing the door from the middle of the cell. He was so frightened that if it had been anyone else they might have shrunk into the shadows of the corner and wet themselves. He was in a different situation than all of the other times he'd faced Voldemort or his followers before. Then, he'd had a chance however remote it seemed at first and now there was nothing. His protection was gone, there was no Tonks, no Dumbledore, not even Ron or Hermione were around to pull him out of this mess. They'd confiscated his wands too, both of them, and now he suddenly felt naked being without them, it had been over a full year since he'd been away from his wand for very long at all. Even when Umbridge had collected their wands they'd only been without them for under an hour.

Harry was also avoiding the fact that he was half naked anyway, even though they'd been put back on the cuts that had been made in them made them hang oddly and barely covered him in the spots that needed to be covered. He suspected that even that was short-lived, if the twins returned there would be little left to wear at all if they cut his robes again.

The feeling of a finger tracing the webbed scars that covered his back made Harry shudder. He'd never in his life been more embarrassed even though it had only been the three of them. Not even what Tonks had put him through during the summer could add up to it. He hated not having some measure of control over what was happening with him and he couldn't help by be embarrassed.

But he'd have to take that path when it came, for now he simply stood, expecting the worse and ready to fight it for all he had.

The door crashed open and Harry saw that it wasn't Voldemort whom he now faced, rather it was someone that he hated almost as much.

"Bellatrix," Harry hissed angrily. It hadn't occurred to him that she would be there even though it should have.

"Potter," she hissed back with just as much fury as Harry had shown her. "I heard that you'd been captured along with several of your little _friends _and I wanted to see you before I go off and have fun with them. You have been given a temporary reprieve so that we may decide what to do with you. Several ideas have been given, but I think that you will be able to survive for longer than any of your friends at least. You are a special case, and I think that you will receive some special treatment, still I wanted to see you incase one of the first sessions becomes too boisterous and kills you off before I get my turn."

A growl rose from Harry's throat, sounding more like an animal than a man. Bellatrix smiled and her voice changed into the baby tone she'd used the year before. "Is baby Potter angry at Auntie Bella?" she asked mockingly.

Harry didn't answer, just stared. The room felt hot and it was all he could do to hold his mouth shut. He'd learned his lesson from the twins already – to be sarcastic only meant more pain.

"Come now Harry," Bellatrix said. "Your precious godfather would have at least spit on me by now. Or... are you just afraid to speak to me?" She hissed. "I _would _understand if the poor little boy was too afraid to speak after all the things he's done to anger the dark lord I would be afraid too. Gryffindor courage is highly overrated, gets you _killed._"

"No," he said, against his better judgment, angry that she'd even dared mention Sirius. He wasn't afraid of her, he was afraid of the things she and Voldemort would do to him – and the others, now that he was in their hands.

"Not afraid?" Bella asked, quivering with delight. "How about we _make _you afraid."

"I'll never be afraid of you," Harry spat before he could stop himself.

Then it was there, he didn't even hear her speak, but the pain was so tremendous that he could move or breathe. Every single part of his body hurt like thousands of hot needles being pressed into him instantly. The pain faded and Harry whimpered even though he tried not to.

"I believe you and I were forced to part with unfinished business Potter," Bellatrix said. "You were trying to use an unforgivable on me. I have thought it over and decided that it might be best to school you in its uses, so that you will understand..." her wand raised again and Harry flinched.

"You must mean them Potter, with every part of hate you can muster you must want to cause unimaginable pain," she said and the shouted out the word Harry was dreading. "_CRUCIO!"_

Again unimaginable pain spread through his body in an instant, his mind barely was able to keep any sort of thought as he screamed. He tried moving, getting away, but nothing helped. He knew it would end but the longer it lasted the less likely that seemed, he just wanted to die, for all of the pain to go away, for everything to be over. He didn't want to be put through such difficulties.

It ended and Harry relaxed, trying to focus on something. He needed to find something to think about so it didn't hurt so much.

Almost as soon as the pain had subsided he heard the word again and he curled into a fetal position, screaming in pain as the curse filled every part of his body with pain. As the pain subsided again he wondered what it would be like to be driven mad from the pain, if maybe they just lost track of thinking, of themselves forever instead of just when the curse had been placed upon them. Neville's parents didn't seem to be in pain anymore, though they didn't seem to be anything else either, they just sort of existed like what he supposed happened when someone received a Dementor's kiss.

The curse was used three more times, she would release him, let him gain some awareness and then use it again. He could hear Bellatrix laughing in the background, trying to mock him, but he was loosing most of his thoughts and the words seemed to run into one another and made no sense. He eventually blacked out the sixth time the curse was placed upon him, almost sure that he was at the edge of death itself.

•

Cin was sitting inside the room when he awoke next. She was smiling, holding his head in her lap and stroking his hair quietly. Even as disconcerted as he was, Harry found that he hurt so much that moving was out of the question. She didn't say anything at all and Harry suspected that she was the quiet one. He couldn't see the other one, or hear her moving around, but he could turn over to look for her either. The stoking hand through his hair reminded Harry of Tonks and even though it wasn't someone he liked doing it, he was happy to lose himself thinking it was Tonks.

"You look like you like that," Cin's voice said, waking Harry from his semi-content sleep. "I don't think it will go over very well if our Lord saw a smile on your face."

The smile that had crept across Harry's face as he slept disappeared instantly. He knew that Cin was still holding him and he jerked away from her even though it hurt a little. There was a disappointed look on her face and even though Harry didn't feel remotely sorry for her he thought she might really be disappointed that he didn't like her.

"It's time to come with me," Cin said and Harry looked up trying to determine what she wanted to do with him. "Your presence has been required in the chambers beyond the hall," she said with a wicked smile. "I believe you have some friends waiting for you."

Harry went rigid, remembering that Bellatrix had mentioned friends earlier. "Who?" he asked, trying to keep the anger in check. He didn't want to be unconscious or in a position where he couldn't even try to help whoever it was that was beyond the hall.

Both of the Cins smiled. "There's a little redhead and her brother who have been mouthing off until the others cut out their tongues. There's a little blonde girl in there too, doesn't seem to know right from left. Oh! Not to mention your girlfriend, the bushy haired girl as well, at least she was thoughtful enough to keep her mouth shut.

To Harry that seemed to be the worst information possible, and he wanted to not believe her, but he couldn't. He figured Ron and Ginny were the redheads, and Luna was probably the blonde. Hermione of course must be the fourth, they'd been reading too much of the Daily Prophet in the past.

He glanced to the other Cin who still hadn't moved from her sitting position on her floor. Her eyes were slightly glazed over, as if she was angry and Harry wondered if he should mention that Hermione wasn't his girlfriend. It could save her some undo pain, but they probably wouldn't care much and hurt her anyway. If Ron had really gotten his tongue removed then he didn't doubt the threats from the Death Eaters, if they said they'd do it, it was quite likely they would.

"Alright, I'll come," he said, working his way up the back wall. "Are they badly hurt?"

Laughing Cin just turned and headed out the door. Harry followed her, glancing back to see that the other Cin hadn't moved. There was something different about the two, and not just that only one of them spoke, they were really different.

"She could have killed you and gotten it over with ages ago," Cin said from ahead. "In the street while you climbed through the window. She almost did, I'm not sure why she decided against it, our master would have rewarded our loyalty either way. Still, it's more fun to play with your food, isn't it?"

Not even daring to respond Harry simply focused on the wall ahead, trying not to look at Cin at all.

The hallway got narrower and narrower until they were in front of a small door that filled the hallway completely. The longer they stood the longer Harry wondered what exactly they were doing, it was a door, he knew that because it was of a different material than the rest of the hallway, but there were no handles and it wouldn't simply swing open, that was too uncomplicated for this place.

Everything he'd been told was true and he hated himself for it, hated himself for letting them get caught, for them being his friends. Ron and Hermione were huddling in the corner, Ron trying to nurse his bleeding mouth while Hermione hugged him tightly. Ginny and Luna were hiding behind them, looking more frightened.

Fighting back his emotions, Harry stepped forward; he would need to stay strong, for them. He needed to find a way out of this so that maybe they could all survive. Voldemort was the only one that could kill him, he'd have to use that to his advantage somehow, but at least he had something.

•

A day later Hermione sat alone in the library, thinking. Ron had blown up when he'd heard what happened but Hermione had silently excused herself, and had gone to the place she thought would be the safest – the library, where no one would be. She wasn't sure what she was going to do, but she wasn't going to let Harry be tortured, or worse, killed.

Lost in trying to figure out how to break Harry out of the Death Eater's grasp, she didn't hear the footsteps approaching. "Granger," a voice said quietly and Hermione snapped her head, finding a Slytherin standing behind her. She recognized the face, but being distressed she couldn't remember the name that went with it.

"Yes?" she responded, only half aware she was even speaking.

"I know where Harry is."

That caught her attention. Hermione's vague attention snapped to the Slytherin.

"He is being tortured at this very moment," she said sympathetically. "I need your help to get him out of there."

"What!" Hermione exclaimed and the girl clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Quiet stupid girl," she hissed. "This one's just you and I, no one else can know about it because I'll be discovered. Don't you dare fowl this up because Harry'll die! Do you understand?" she continued in a harsh whisper.

Hermione nodded mutely, not able to say anything. The Slytherin removed her hand and Hermione glanced around, making sure they were all alone. "Why are you helping..."

"Blaise, Blaise Zabini. I'm helping because Harry believed in me and I can't let his trust go to waste, I've already told him I'd help him if he helped me." She responded coldly. "We need to get started now, so we can get some potions done as quickly as possible."

Again Hermione nodded, not sure how to respond. She stood, and then it became apparent what Blaise was talking about. "The informant?" she whispered.

Nodding, Blaise led her out of the library and down the hall. She stopped at each corner, glancing around it before continuing down the hallway. "We're going to a secret room," Blaise said. "Somewhere we won't be bothered for a few days."

When they finally made it to their destination Blaise spoke quietly to a painting which seemed a little perturbed, but eventually opened up. The room was all that great, it was a simple, straightforward room with a few desks and some potions supplies already set up. A cauldron simmered on one of them emanating a putrid green smoke. The excretions did disappear though instead of filling the room.

"What are you making?" Hermione asked, taking a closer look at cauldron.

"Furtim Draught," Blaise said offhandedly, moving to the wall and looking through the pile of ingredients that she had stacked there.

"You can't make that!" Hermione yelled, "That's in an illegal potion."

"Shut up stupid girl," Blaise said, whirling around to face her. "If we're going to save Harry you're going to have to deal with doing something illegal. Only you and I are going to know about it, so unless you _want_ to go to Azkaban for a few years you'll keep your mouth shut about it."

Slightly flustered at the outburst, Hermione only blinked.

"How's this going to help him?" Hermione asked quietly.

"Do you know anything about this potion?" Blaise asked Hermione pointedly. "Other than the fact that it's illegal?" she added sarcastically.

Hermione closed her eyes briefly, trying to recall what she'd read about the potion. In Latin furtim meant stealth, but it wasn't quite the right translation for the word, not in this case. She'd read about it a few years prior in the same book she'd read about the poly-juice potion. "It helps you blend into your environment, making it easy to observe without being observed, it's a type of concealment potion."

"Very good Granger," Blaise said, sarcasm dripping from every word. "You can't have actually used it or you'd understand a little better. You see, the only way in is to walk past Death Eaters, not one or two, but at minimum two dozen, probably more. A charm could work, but the place Harry's hidden in is extremely well guarded against charms like that, so I had to find a potion to do the job."

"Why not ask Snape to help you?" Hermione asked quietly, but realized what she was asking. "Sorry," she added, "I didn't think. I just..."

"You want to help Harry, I understand. If we're going to work together though you're going to have to learn to think before you speak, I don't want to hear anything out of you unless it's important. Now I need you because I can't finish brewing this potion myself, I may be a good Slytherin, but I wasn't good enough to get into advanced potions like you. Had I any other choice I would have gone a different path, however asking a Slytherin would have put me into their debt and risked myself of being exposed to Voldemort's minions."

"You said his name," Hermione hissed.

"Shush," Blaise warned with a glare that Hermione almost backed away from. "I thought you were Potter's friend and a Gryffindor, doesn't that mean that you've got all this courage to not be afraid of saying his name?"

"Well... I... You... I mean, I can say it, I just thought that everyone else..." Hermione said, stumbling, she'd always got after Ron for not saying the name and now she was telling someone they shouldn't – sort of.

"You know nothing about what I should and shouldn't say Granger, you know nothing about my life other than the fact that I'm Slytherin and I'm risking my life to save Harry. Now, if you would be so kind, go stuff yourself. I'm here to work."

Sniffing, Hermione shut up as she looked over the instructions to the potion. "What do I need to do?" Hermione asked once she'd finished.

"I've added powdered boomslang skin already," Blaise said. "The potion's got a few more days before we need to add anything, but it needs to be well controlled while it's waiting. I can't be around all the time and neither can you – you'll have to make sure I know what needs to be done if you go and disappear."

Nodding mutely was Hermione's only response, she didn't want to say anything and end up saying something stupid. Blaise sure didn't like her very much and Hermione had already received a slap in the face several times – figuratively, she wasn't going to let that happen again.

"There's one more thing," Blaise said. "I need some help getting into Severus' private supplies or we need to go to Hogsmeade, there's an ingredient I couldn't procure."

Hermione almost spoke, a few of the ingredients that had already been used were highly difficult to purchase and Hermione had assumed that Blaise had gotten them from Professor Snape's storage, but now wasn't so sure.

"What's the ingredient?" Hermione inquired hesitantly.

"Very good Granger, you're thinking properly. The ingredient isn't illegal as you no doubt suspect, it is however a very rare and very expensive ingredient."

"Well what is it?" Hermione snapped, not wanting to deal with the games that Blaise might be playing.

"Much better Granger, we could make a Slytherin out of you yet. The ingredient, for your information, is matured Acromantula blood." Hermione fought to show any signs of surprise, and apparently she didn't, or Blaise ignored it for the moment because nothing was mentioned about it.

"Their blood is difficult to procure, because the mature Acromantula is roughly the size of Hagrid, if not bigger and generally stay in packs when the leave a nest."

The knowledge of Harry's second year trip had been discussed with Hermione on more than one occasion and she knew that there was a vast supply of blood in the forest. "It's not on the recipe," Hermione said quietly.

Blaise shrugged, "well it's there, just under a different name. It will need to be added in three days or the potion will fail. We need to get to Hogsmeade first, I'd much rather sneak out than risk getting caught by Snape in his room."

"I've got a better idea," Hermione said quietly and turned, leaving the room with Blaise close behind. They walked quietly, Blaise not asking questions, simply following. When they approached the portrait that Hermione was headed for Blaise slowed.

"What are we doing here?" she asked, almost insulted.

"Don't worry, you'll find out in a minute."

After tickling the pear the portrait opened up and Hermione entered followed by a pissed Slytherin. "Dobby?" Hermione called once she'd entered. There was a crashing sound and Dobby came flying through the group of elves who'd assembled near by. "Is Master Potter safe?" he asked immediately, then clamped his hand over his mouth.

"Harry Potter, is he safe?" he asked again, thinking things through.

"No Dobby," Hermione said sadly. "But we're trying to help get him out."

Dobby nodded thankfully, and looked to Blaise, his eyes showing anger. Hermione looked to Blaise and then back to Dobby, confused but still thinking things through. "Dobby we need to talk in private."

Nodding, Dobby led them past at least a dozen elves, all of which were watching Hermione warily, none of them seemed to like her very much. Nor did Blaise seem to like the elves.

They entered a side room which seemed slightly compact, and Dobby snapped his fingers, conjuring two seats. "What is Dobby able to do for Hermione Granger to help Harry Potter?" he asked once the door had been shut.

It was Blaise who noticed the bed in the corner of the room where another elf was laying, dirty and sickly looking. "What about that one," she asked, pointing to the elf.

"Winky is not telling anyone of Master Potter's secrets, she is a good elf."

"That's the second time you've called Harry 'Master' Dobby, what's going on?" Dobby went wide eyed and looked around, scared. "Nothing Hermione Granger," Dobby said, frightened.

"Dobby, it's alright, you can tell me, remember, I'm Harry's best friend." Hermione said, trying to reason with the elf.

Cringing, Dobby looked around for something, but finding nothing to hide behind he looked up to Hermione, still terrified. "Harry Potter is telling Dobby not to tell anyone," he said shakily. "He is telling Dobby to keep our secret."

Out of the corner of her eyes Hermione saw Blaise look at Dobby with a renewed interest and she sighed, she wouldn't go into this right now. "It's alright Dobby, you don't have to tell anyone anything. We need you to go to Hogsmeade and check a store for us, is that alright? It's something to help Harry."

Dobby nodded his head furiously. Hermione was glad Dobby liked Harry so much, she'd worry about what Dobby was talking about later – when she could yell at Harry in the comfort of the common room, or some other room of the castle.

"What is Hermione Granger needing and where is Dobby to go?" he asked, excited.

Hermione looked to Blaise who took it from there. "You'll need to visit Kringle's Elements, it's a seedy little place at the edge of town, on Sow's Tail. It will cost you a good deal if they have it, but all we need to know is if they do – because we can get it ourselves, we'll just sneak out."

While Hermione hadn't been wanting to sneak out she knew that she didn't have the money, and probably couldn't come up with it without revealing what she was going to use it for and if Blaise wasn't going to trust Dobby enough to give him the money then she'd have to comply with Blaise's ways for the moment.

"If we're just going to check we could use an owl," Hermione pointed out. Blaise rolled her eyes. "Don't you know that every piece of mail entering or leaving this castle is checked at the moment? The ministry's having a riot over what happened. You _did _read the article in the paper about Potter saving Hogsmeade, didn't you?" she snapped.

Hermione had, and she'd been angry when she'd seen who'd written it, Rita Skeeter, but then she hadn't said anything bad about anyone, she'd just been utterly lacking in mentioning that the Aurors had been the one doing the fighting, and eventually the one's who'd done the cleanup, Harry had just been caught overdoing the hero role again. This time it had been seen by every witch and wizard who received the Daily Prophet though.

Of course, after such a outcry for Harry's return, Minister Fudge couldn't just ignore the fact that he'd been captured and portkeyed away after helping so many people escape the Imperius curse. No, Fudge had to do something about it and there was a nationwide man-hunt going on to find Harry and hunt down Death Eaters. It had been a good move in some ways, but Harry was going to hate the attention if he got back.

_When _Hermione reminded herself, _when_ he gets back.

When Hermione looked up again Dobby was gone and Blaise was on her way out. "I'll just go get something from the kitchens. I know you haven't eaten yet." With that, Hermione was left alone again to wonder what exactly was going on with Harry at that moment.

•

Tonks knew, she could hear him screaming. She'd woken to it, and covered the ring with her below to lesson the sound so that no one else would hear.

"Harry," she whispered into the ring, "I'll find you."

Dumbledore had been impressed with the rings but had told her truthfully that they would in no way help anyone locate Harry. The 'hole' was simply not something that could be traced.

George and Fred had been crestfallen when he'd said that, and went back to their shop muttering about putting locator spells on anything they ever gave Harry. Tonks knew it wouldn't help much, Death Eater prisons were always warded against stuff like that.

Of course Harry couldn't hear her, not now, not after what they'd done to him. She shuddered remembering the memory of only a few hours before. It was hard enough to sleep without remembering it.

_"What's this?" a voice had asked, a voice that Tonks knew well, Bellatrix Lestrange._

_Of course the fact that she'd found the ring worried Tonks, she'd been listening to it for almost a full day with nothing, and then, when it had come it was the sounds of Death Eaters._

_"It is a communication device," a voice responded, one Tonks did not know. "We saw it being used in Hogsmeade and have created wards to keep it from being used. We had also researched the composition and determined that he cannot be tracked by it so the wards are only to prevent someone from using it to communicate."_

_"Who is listening on the other side, waiting to hear little Harry's voice?" Bellatrix asked, laughing._

_"The Auror named Tonks is the only one we know of."_

_There was a sickening laugh and then a crunch that Tonks knew well, a bone breaking. She could hear Harry whimpering, but when she looked through the ring there was nothing but blackness, and she supposed that while the warding had stopped the ring from transmitting originally it was breaking down and now she could at least hear what was going on. If she listened long enough perhaps she could hear where they were._

_"Remove the wards," Bellatrix said and Tonks could imagine the evil smirk on her face as she continued. "We want an audience for the torture."_

_Right then Tonks had almost screamed into it that no matter where Bellatrix went she'd be chased down if she so much as laid a finger on Harry. Of course, Tonks knew that would only instigate the woman to do more harm, so she kept quiet, as quite as she could manage._

_"Harry..." Bellatrix said. "Harry wake up."_

_There was a magic spell – an enervate performed and she could hear Harry's breath changing. Whatever it was that had been done to him must have knocked him unconscious and it must have been painful – because when they'd broken one of his bones he didn't wake up._

_"What?" Harry asked, and Tonks was astonished at the way he spoke, she'd have never thought he could be broken so quickly. Harry was a fighter. She would have thought that he'd be swearing them off until they did something imaginative with his mouth to keep him from talking. But they wouldn't do that – it would keep the screams toned down._

_"Come now," Bellatrix said. "You've only lost two of your friends."_

_Through the quite Tonks could hear sobbing, a soft sobbing that broke her heart. What had Bellatrix done to him? Who were the friends she was talking about?_

_"You didn't have to kill them, I told you I'd do anything you wanted."_

_"We offered you a choice Harry, Ron or Hermione, you couldn't choose, so we decided for you. Besides, it was best to get them out of the way. It made you much more fun to toy with."_

_"Just don't kill any of the others," Harry said, even quieter. "Don't harm them anymore, please..." he begged._

_At this point Tonks was choked up with a vivid imagination of what must have happened. The Death Eaters had used such tactics before, she'd read about them in her studies before she'd become a fully qualified Auror. It was easier to break a prisoner if there where others there, others he cared for. Usually they kept all the 'prisoners' in separate places, bringing them together only when the torture was to begin. They would force the true captive to watch as people he or she knew and loved where tortured, raped, or killed in front of their eyes. It was a horrendous and effective tool._

_"Stand," Bellatrix said and Tonks could hear Harry moving. She was fighting with herself to reveal that she was there and reveal that it was all fake. She ached to tell him that Ron and Hermione were fine, a little beaten up after the fight, but in otherwise good health. He'd tell her not to come save him, she was sure of that, but at least he'd know she was trying. She waited though, waited for her chance to tell him and not let anyone else know._

_"Now let's do something about this little trinket," Bellatrix said. "How does it work?"_

_"Sin believes that it has a use similar to an orb, but it transmits picture through the hole as well as voices. If you were to face the ring outward the person on the other end would see everything that is visible, but by facing it inward you are able to hear and see the person on the other end. We have not been able to test this theory yet, because of the wards blocking the linking of the two devices."_

_"How can we seal off communication from the other end?" Bellatrix asked, her voice smart, and very interested in the little ring. Tonks shuddered, she would have hated to see the calculating look that Bellatrix must be giving the ring, wondering how she could use it to her advantage._

_"You merely have to seal off the proper side, it is simply to decide, these marks... they show which side sends information and which side receives it."_

_"Let us wake up our audience on the other end then." Bellatrix hissed. "Ardoris!"_

_Tonks knew what the spell did, it was used for warming things, like putting it on a rock before placing it under the end of your sheets, but it was a calculated spell, something that had to be used carefully. There was silence except for the breathing Tonks could hear from Harry and then there was a whimper again, this one a whimper of extreme pain that Harry was trying to hold back. Then, a scream. A scream that Tonks knew she'd never forget. The sort of scream that wasn't quite human anymore._

_The screaming continued until Harry had to breathe and then it sounded as if he fainted when something slumped to the ground and the voices became more muted. "Shame he's so weak," Bellatrix said, laughing. "It would have been fun to finish melting this before he blacked out, it's an interesting feeling, hot metal cooling against the skin."_

_Then it struck Tonks what they'd done and she started sobbing, the sort of thing she'd sworn off a long time ago. She knew then if she ever saw Bellatrix face to face only one of them would walk away._

All she could hear now was his heartbeat and harsh breathing. Whatever Bellatrix was doing to him now had been stopped. She'd heard the woman walk away. "It is not good to defy her," the voice said, the one that Tonks had yet to identify.

"Sin, what do you want from me?" Harry asked, and Tonks blinked. The voice earlier had referred to Sin as a third person, but now Harry was calling this person by the same name. "Why don't they just kill me?" he sobbed.

Silence.

It was more than Tonks could handle, she kicked her bedpost, slipping on a small patch of water she'd spilled earlier and falling back on her head. She laid on the floor, sobbing. She hated it, hated that she couldn't be there and save him. Dumbledore had ordered her to get some rest before she went out and did something like that, after all she hadn't slept since he'd disappeared almost three days ago. When she'd finally fallen asleep earlier it was only to wake up ten minutes later to Harry screaming again, whatever they were doing they would pay she resolved, even if she had to do it illegally.

–


	20. Escape

Chapter 20

• Escape •

"Up," a voice snarled.

Harry opened his eyes to the new Death Eater. It must have been the thirtieth one to barge into his cell in the last few days. He wasn't sure exactly how long it had been, but it had been a long time, at least a week, probably more.

He didn't respond to the Death Eater, not at first. He was very sore at the moment and wasn't sure how well he could respond. They had been practicing the Cruciatus curse on him lately, one by one. Lately he was beginning to float away when they did. It was as if he could no longer feel the pain. Or else he would black out from the horrific pain. He certainly felt it afterwards. It seemed the prolonged exposure to the curse meant that the post-curse pain lasted longer and his body had started to physically get hurt. Bruises covered most of his body, even places he'd never been struck physically.

"Get up!" the death eater shouted, kicking Harry in the rib cage.

It wasn't the first time that had happened and Harry winced as the chest bruises flared painfully. At least it was better than the broken arm he'd sustained. It was almost healed now, probably because of the potions that had been forced down his throat lately.

With a gasp of air he was finally able to get himself into a sitting position. The Death Eater wouldn't be happy with that, and he knew it, so immediately he tried to push himself to his feet. It only made things worse because he ended up lying on the ground once again.

The Death Eater seemed to have even less patience than the others and Harry found himself being dragged from his cell and into a room where people had accumulated. It was the same room that everyone had died in. He caught a flash of red hair behind several Death Eaters. He looked away quickly, even though his eyes widened. They still had Ginny and he didn't want to see her, not after what they'd done to her. He was ashamed about what had happened because of him.

When he had to choose between Ginny and Luna they'd sworn they wouldn't kill whoever he chose. He knew he couldn't trust a Death Eater, but it was his only choice. He'd picked Ginny to live, because he didn't want to see the same thing that had happened to Ron and Hermione – it had torn him apart. He had had to make the choice again and he hated it, if he could have he would have given himself instead of the first two. Of course, even the decision had not turned out the way he had hoped. Luna was dead and he knew even if Ginny lived he'd never be able to look her in the eyes again not after he had seen her abused.

"Well, well, well. Baby Potter's finally come to join the fun," a familiar voice said. Harry looked up to see Bellatrix's wicked smiled shine down upon him. He frowned and spat at her, knowing that by doing it he would at least receive a slap, possibly even a Cruciatus curse. He was lucky, and only received a slap. However, her nails drew blood from his face, not for the first time.

Several of the Death Eaters laughed. Harry was sure he recognized a few of them. One was almost certainly Lucius Malfoy, but he couldn't pinpoint where the voice was coming from. He was startled, because he had thought Lucius was in Azkaban. He shook the thought away, Lucius or not, he wasn't exactly the worst person Harry would be dealing with. Many of the others had been excessively violent in their dealings with him.

"So Baby Potter, guess who we found?"

Harry's head jerked sideways to the captives and he saw that the flash of red had been not one, but two heads. One of them was buried in the others chest, crying.

He blanched, refusing to believe that that could have her. They couldn't have caught Mrs. Weasley. But, as the head looked up to see Harry he saw that it was her. He shook his head and looked away, refusing to believe it. He'd left Mrs. Weasley with the twins and they would die before they let her get hurt. His fear seemed to strike a chord in Bellatrix's mind and she laughed.

"It took quite a lot of work to take her. The fools protecting her would only let us take her over their dead bodies, so we did – just to bring her before you now. I doubt that those protecting her had the foresight that your mother had. Shall we find out?"

"NO!" Harry screamed, trying to move forward. He wouldn't let them take Mrs. Weasley, no matter what sort of beating he received. They would have to kill him first.

It was then that Harry found himself in mid air, unable to go anywhere. He fought hard, trying to get out of whatever charm they'd used on him. He couldn't go anywhere and after a few minutes of struggle, opening his old wounds up, he gave in, no longer having any energy to fight it.

"Don't," he whimpered, staring at her, not willing to look in the faces of any of the other Death Eaters. He doubted that the pleading would help, but he was willing to do it if that's what they wanted.

Bellatrix moved around Harry in mid air so that she was looking directly at him. "Join us," she said. "Swear that you'll fight for our cause and she can go. Our lord has seen your strength and knows that you would be a strong ally and a worthy Death Eater."

It occurred to Harry that that was why they were keeping him alive. They wanted him to join them.

He looked at Bellatrix and then toward Mrs. Weasley and Ginny. He didn't know what to do, he knew he couldn't swear himself to the dark side; it went against everything he'd ever strived for. "Come now Harry," Bellatrix whispered in his ear. "I saw you use that curse against me after I killed my cousin. With a little training you could rival my own talents with the dark arts."

The mention of Sirius snapped Harry back to attention. Inside he fumed, he remembered his promise, to never allow someone to die for his sake. After taking a deep breath he knew he couldn't do it. There was no way he'd join the people who had killed nearly everyone he loved.

"I…" he said, and tears seeped out of his eyes. He looked at Mrs. Weasley again and could see that she was frightened. He wondered if they knew she was pregnant. Could he allow them to kill her?

The decision was made for him quite suddenly. Two Death Eaters raised their wands and spoke the killing curse. Harry watched in horror as two more of his family dropped dead in front of them, and a third that was yet to be born.

It frightened him that they could kill someone so easily. As if life didn't matter. But life mattered, all life mattered, even those people who he hated didn't deserve to die. By joining Voldemort he would be crushing people's hopes, forcing their children into repression. The prophecy said it was Voldemort or him. Harry knew now that even if he died he would take Voldemort with him no matter the consequences. He would fight, and he would win for the children who had yet to be born.

Turning to Bellatrix, tears streaming down his face, he spat at her again. As he'd watched the two die he'd bitten his tongue and now his blood filled spit flowed down Bellatrix's face. Her smirk told him what was about to happen and he closed his eyes as the Cruciatus curse struck him, refusing this one time, to cry out in pain. He would be strong because others needed him to be strong.

•

"Is the potion doing alright?" Blaise asked, entering the hidden room at Hogwarts, hours later.

Hermione snapped to attention, and her wand was suddenly pointed at Blaise. "You tricked me," she snarled, rage on her face. "You used a spell on me to make me trust you!"

Blaise smiled and ignored the wand. "It took you long enough to figure it out," she said, plucking a grape from the bowl in her hand and putting it in her mouth.

"I should turn you in right now," Hermione growled. The sound seemed almost unnatural coming from her, she never had been so angry at anyone.

"If you don't want Harry to be freed, that's fine with me," Blaise said calmly, placing another grape in her mouth and finding a seat next to the potion. She examined it carefully, and then picked up the recipe for it. "It doesn't matter anyway, I don't think that your little elf friend is going to be able to locate the Acromantula blood. He's been everywhere that is within his reach and found nothing. If we don't get that then there is no way I'll be able to get to Harry without revealing myself. Even if I do get to him we have to get out of the dungeons he's in, they're warded against Portkeys.

Hermione stared at Blaise as she popped another grape into her mouth.

"Why did you use the charm on me?" she demanded.

Shrugging, Blaise pulled out one of her books. Hermione growled again. "Alright, alright," Blaise said, raising her hands defensively. "I knew I needed your help and you aren't the sort that trusts others, especially when it involves your friends. When I saw you alone in the library I used the charm on you to make sure I would be able to approach you successfully. I only did it to save Harry's life. It's not as if I tried to deceive you. I just needed to make sure you'd work with me."

"So you really where the one that told Harry about the attack?" Hermione asked, her wand dropping a little.

Blaise nodded and turned back to her textbook, flipping the page and putting another grape in her mouth.

"I know where we can get Acromantula blood," Hermione announced quietly.

Blaise froze.

Turning slightly, forgetting her grapes and the book, Blaise stared at Hermione. "Where?" she asked. Her usual tact had disappeared with the announcement.

"There is a nest of them in the forest. Harry and Ron ran into them second year, almost got themselves killed."

"I always thought you should have been put into Ravenclaw. Now I think you'd have made a good Slytherin," she said, getting up from her seat and heading out the door. She stopped, turned to Hermione and smiled. "Coming?"

Hermione looked to the potion, they didn't need to add anything to it for almost a full day, it was almost finished and it had gone perfectly so far. She made a decision in her mind, nodded and followed Blaise out the door. She knew where the blood was, but it was going to be difficult to actually obtain it.

•

Tonks was in the hospital wing, having just woken from a long session of dreamless sleep. Her arms were still badly fouled up, and she doubted she'd be able to hold a wand for several more days. The encounter with the Death Eaters hadn't gone as well as she'd hoped. It didn't help that the information had been a trap. She winced as she recalled the Auror next to her collapsing when he got stuck with a killing curse that was meant for her.

It was suppose to be a surprise attack. The ministry had gotten information that a few of the higher ranking Death Eaters were going to strike a prominent member of the American wizarding government. The man was planning on discussing the American involvement with the 'Voldemort Affair'. Tonks didn't like the idea much, when the American's involved themselves things always went wrong.

The Aurors who were dispatched to keep him safe had already disappeared when Tonks and the team she was with showed up. In fact, if they hadn't received information that had said he'd arrived they would have thought he hadn't. Tonks was extremely pissed off as it was, and wanted to capture one of the Death Eaters so that she could find out where Harry was being kept.

When the Death Eaters attacked it was quick, precise. They knew exactly how many Aurors were there and had superior numbers. Quite a few more than had previously been reported. Only three of the twelve Aurors survived, and Tonks had only survived because she tripped and ended up avoiding the last curse because of it. The other two had been beaten even worse than her. But, luckily enough more Aurors had shown up at the scene and scared the Death Eaters off. Two had been captured, at least that's what she'd been told.

Over the last few days everything had been going wrong. Dozens of Aurors had been killed on missions, as if the Death Eaters knew exactly how and when to strike. Ministry officials were hiding in their rooms or houses. The minister himself was said to be cooped up with three hand-picked Aurors around him at all times.

A scream echoed from the ring and Tonks groaned. She knew she should turn it off, but it almost felt as if, by doing that, she was somehow abandoning Harry. When Madam Pomfrey had moved to take it away from her Tonks had threatened her life, something quite unusual for her. Madam Pomfrey left it there.

Struggling, Tonks finally was able to get to a sitting position. She examined her arm carefully wishing that it would heal faster. One of the ups and downs about being a metamorphmagus was that they healed differently, the body healed much faster. But there was a problem with healing spells, they often made things worse, sometimes even having the opposite effect. That was, unless the proper spells were used. Most potions would counteract the healing abilities too, but not all. The true problem was that most healers didn't know the proper healing spells and potions to use because metamorphmagus' were quite rare. Of course Madam Pomfrey knew them, but the healer who'd gotten to her right after the battle hadn't, and she'd only made things worse.

Madam Pomfrey appeared, looking agitated. "Lay down Nymphadora Tonks or I'll have to give you another dose of sleeping draught."

"But…"

"You're not going to be able to help the boy if you can't even use your wand. I told you it'll be at least two more days before you even get back use of your arm, and another before you have full use. Your legs are almost in the same shape. It's a good thing that healer didn't use her spells on them, or I doubt you'd be able to walk for a week. I want you to rest, that's the only way that you're going to heal.

"I need some food," Tonks said, knowing that to argue would be useless. As soon as her legs healed, probably by tomorrow, she'd get out and talk to Dumbledore. She needed to know if the Death Eater they'd captured knew anything about where Harry was located.

•

Another Death Eater, and another and another. Soon even they seemed innumerable. Dragged and beaten, Harry only clenched his jaw and held his resolve close to his heart. He needed to stay alive, for everyone. He was put through tortures that were unimaginable. He had to make decisions that tore him apart inside and out, things that he would never tell anyone about if he ever escaped. He tottered on the edge of breaking, only holding on by a few small strands.

It was more obvious one day when he woke in Cin's lap and he didn't even push away. She had been there through almost ever session of torture, sometimes participating, sometimes watching. He always saw her eyes meeting his when he looked towards her. He hated it, hated her, but he hated her more than most of them because she seemed to play both sides. He hated waking in her lap, her hands stroking his hair, comforting him. But it was also the only reprieve he had and he felt himself using it as a last string, something to keep him sane. That was what made him hate her even more.

It was several days later, the exact amount of time he wasn't sure, when a Death Eater entered into his room to take him for more torture. He'd seen it all and likely felt most of it. Many of the Death Eaters reveled in using muggle methods on him. The scars on his back had been added to by a whip that the talkative Cin had come up with. The silent Cin had taken great pleasure in cleaning the wounds while Harry was immobile, making him scream in pain as she did. Whatever she had used on his wounds burned almost as bad as the initial whipping.

He knew he'd been close to death a few times, probably more. They'd killed his best friends, Luna, the ditzy blonde who could never have deserved death, Ginny, the girl that was like the sister he never had, and Mrs. Weasley, who had taken the place of his mother when he needed it most.. He was sure that they couldn't hurt him any more than that, physically or mentally, even if it meant breaking his mind with the Cruciatus curse.

"Move," the Death Eater said, kicking at Harry, but not very hard. Harry had the distinct impression that whoever was doing it wasn't being as rough as they could. His skin ached, the last torture they had done was quite creative, putting thousands of needles in to him and then heating them all up until they were white hot. He had screamed and screamed until he'd passed out. When he awoke he was in Cin's lap just like usual. His skin had healed most of the way, but it was still red. He wondered exactly how long he'd been asleep. She left him when he woke. As usual, she never said anything. It was her sister that talked, the one that took such great pleasure in his pain.

"Can't stand," Harry croaked. It hurt most to talk, they'd done something to his throat that made it hurt even to breathe. Of course he could breathe, just enough to stay alive.

The Death Eater, who seemed strangely sympathetic to Harry's plight, roughly pulled him to his feet. "Move," she growled again. Shoving Harry, but gripping him so that he didn't fall. He glimpsed another Death Eater in the doorway, one who disappeared quickly. The Death Eater holding him seemed barely as tall as him, much shorter than the rest of them. She shoved him through the door and the second Death Eater nodded their approval, then continued down the hall ahead of them.

Something dropped into the remains of Harry's cloak, something heavy. Harry turned to look what it was but he was shoved again and then held up. "Don't look! Drink it when no one's around," a familiar voice hissed in a voice that was so quiet Harry barely heard it. Harry gaped but the hand shoved him, growing to keep moving. Blaise! It was Blaise, he was sure of it.

Blaise, the person he thought had betrayed him. The one who'd got him to leave the castle where he'd almost walked right into a group of Death Eaters. He thought she'd done it on purpose. She had warned him, but she had also sent him there. Now that she was there he had a hard time keeping his emotions in check. She'd come to rescue him when no one else had. The thought almost made him collapse with relief. Were others here? Had Dumbledore sent others? Was Tonks here? If it was Blaise then he was sure none of the other students were with her, but teachers might be. He took a few deep breaths. His worst nightmare might be ending soon now that she'd come to his rescue.

Another shove and the Death Eater in front of them disappeared beyond the door. Blaise slowed a little and leaned over again. "Don't let any of them see it. It's a rejuvenation potion. Use it after the torture. I'll be back with a Portkey, but they know I'm here now so I can't just escape they'll torture my family. I'm sorry about everything ahead of time."

Harry nodded. He knew what she was going to have to do. He also knew they were watching her.

They moved into the room where all of his friends had died. It was filled with Death Eaters now; everyone else was gone. Harry briefly wondered if they might try and capture others. If Tonks turned up before he escaped he wasn't sure he'd be able to survive her death. So much was happened already, there was no way he could bear to loose any others.

Blaise kicked him behind the knees and he collapsed to the ground. Several of the Death Eaters laughed as she grabbed his hair and forced him up to his knees. "Bow to your master," she said gruffly. Her apology kept echoing in his head as he looked up to Voldemort. His mind was still intact and he held the thought beyond the man's reach. His scar pulsed with pain as Voldemort tried to enter his thoughts. It wasn't the first time, but it was the first time they had been in the same room.

"So," Voldemort said with a laugh. "Harry Potter finally kneels before me." His red eyes cut through the darkness and Harry's skull pulsed again, painfully. He fought it, he could feel the man pushing through his barriers, breaking them down. Harry grimaced, trying to hold on to the shields he'd created.

"You have become strong of mind Harry Potter," he said with a hiss. "It was only a few short months ago you were just learning such things. How is it now that you have gained such masterful skills?"

The Dark Lord paused and glanced around, realizing he was revealing too much. Harry could feel it. The connection went both ways and with Voldemort trying with such difficulty to insert himself into Harry's mind he had let his own protections break down a little. Harry didn't know what to do with it, he couldn't enter into Voldemort's mind, he was afraid of what he would see. There was something, some thought of triumph that sat on the edge of Voldemort's thoughts. But, it wasn't about Harry, it was about something else. Harry couldn't quite grasp it, nor did he try, afraid of what would happen.

"Dumbledore's meddling no doubt." Voldemort sneered. "Crucio!"

The pain of the curses was nothing compared to the one that was placed on him now. His own head was splitting open, and his bones were crackling inside his body. His blood had turned to red hot fire, burning its way through his body. The pain continued pulsating through him like a hammer and he felt his back arch. His scars, the one on his forehead and the one that spidered across his back tingled, burned and then burst open. He could no longer bear the pain and he knew what was going to happen even before it did. With a breath of relief the pain was gone except for a gentle throbbing.

Everything clouded over and he stared lazily at Voldemort. Usually by this time he had fallen into an unconscious state, but here he was, still awake. He barely felt in control though, everything seemed to lull past, like he was drifting on a broom.

A memory took him by surprise and he reached out to grab a hold of something, but collapsed to the ground when he found nothing to hold on to.

"_Now you understand the things that are done by the weak," a voice said. Harry opened his eyes to find himself staring into the eyes of something he did not know. But he did know the man. It was a familiar looking man._

"_But Nicholas," Harry said, "why would they do such things?"_

_Nicholas Flamel chuckled, as if Harry had said something funny. "In the time I've been alive, well over five hundred years, I have never been able to truly answer such a question. There are many answers. Power, fear, money, hate… all these things and more contribute to the condition that we call evil."_

_Harry looked around, seeing the other duelers in the room. They were hidden, somewhere far away, somewhere where the evil things could not come. "Crucio!" someone said and Harry turned to watch the man's partner crumble under the pain of the curse It was released immediately and the partner ran forward to help the crumbled man stand._

"_These curses are forbidden for a reason, but in order to conquer them we must understand them. Are you willing to try it on me?"_

_Meekly, Harry nodded. He could feel the mixed emotions of using such a curse well up in him. But he knew that the ministry allowed them here, in this place. There were always exceptions to everything. Holding up his wand he took a breath. "Crucio!" he yelled, trying to want to hurt the man who had become his mentor. Nicholas stepped back when he was hit by the curse, but other than that barely registered that it had struck him._

"_You must mean it, you must put all of your hate into that curse and want to cause me pain. Pretend that I am one of the vilest wizards you have ever met."_

"_Again!"_

_Harry raised his wand once again and frowned, concentrating. He pictured one person, then another and another trying to find someone he could hate. Even those who had tried to hurt and ruin him did not deserve such pain. He could not hate them that much. He fumbled and looked to the ground. "Albus," Nicholas said, placing his hand on the young mans shoulder. "I know that this is hard, but if you ever want to become a powerful wizard you must understand magic. Even if you do not use it again you must be able to use it this one time._

_Once more Harry raised his wand, trying to picture something he hated. He concentrated, willing himself to want to cause pain but, as the thoughts of the pain he would cause filled his mind, he stopped. He could not use such a spell on someone. The wizard who had killed his elder brother did not even deserve it. He deserved death, but no on deserved such agonizing pain._

"_I can't," he whimpered. He knew what it felt like and Nicholas had just done it to him, but he could not do such a thing._

_Nicholas smiled instead of sighing. He grasped Harry by the shoulder and led him out of the room. "It is alright. Even I could not do it for many hundreds of years. You have potential in you, such wonderful potential. Some day you will understand evil. You will be able to face it and conquer it. Then you will no longer feel fear of such things."_

_Harry looked to Nicholas and smiled, happy that the man was his mentor. He glanced one last time out at the crowd watching as William Potter was put to the ground a fourth time by the Cruciatus curse. His mentor taught things much differently. He glanced to the mirror just before leaving the room and looked into his own eyes._

Harry sat up quickly, surprised at what he'd seen at the last moment. He had seen Dumbledore young and spry, not more than twenty years old, his dark red hair hanging to his collar and his eyes without their familiar sparkle. He was frowning, frustration welling up in him. If he was going to fight evil he had to be better, stronger. It was different, to see the man he knew so normal.

Someone was sitting with him again. He knew who it was, Cin. She was always there, always stroking his hair as he slept. It was scary and comforting at the same time. He hated her, she simply didn't care when it mattered and cared when it did not. He didn't need comforting; he needed someone to save his friends. He needed to make sure that Mrs. Weasley hadn't died.

It was then he realized that the weight in his pocket was gone and his eyes widened. He sat up, looking at Cin as she examined the vial. Fear crept over him. If she knew, if she told someone, then Blaise was likely to get caught. He didn't say anything but instead looked away, trying to keep himself emotionless.

He felt something brush against him and he turned to see that she was holding out the vial to him. His eyes widened and he shook his head, expecting that as soon as he took it he'd get beaten down again. She nodded vigorously, and pushed the vial towards him then stopped. She made a motion for him to come to her and lay his head in her lap and he shook it. Irritated she did it again, then threatened to break the potion vial with a second motion.

Meekly Harry crawled forward and lay his head down in her lap again. He could feel her hands stroking his hair again and then one of them reach out and his pocket suddenly dropped a bit, the weight of the potion filling it again. Harry wasn't sure how to react. This Cin acted so much different from the other one, unless they were both together.

He felt her move and his head rose in the air, then was gently placed to the ground. He didn't open his eyes at first, wondering if she was going to harm him until he felt a kiss on his forehead. Then, as he opened his eyes Cin disappeared out the door without looking back. He blinked, wondering what was happening. She'd left him, and given him the potion.

He sat up again, staring at the door, wondering how long she'd be gone for. But, taking no chances he pulled the vial from his pocket and drained it into his mouth. It was the most disgusting concoction he'd ever drunk, but he choked it down. It was worth it if it helped him get his strength back. It didn't happen quickly, it was rather slow acting, but he could feel it. It moved through his body slowly at first, a soft burning sensation that slipped into his chest and then flowered out into his body, moving into everything. The pain was easily bearable compared to the Cruciatus curse, and he closed his eyes as his body tingled. The broken arm snapped taught and Harry grimaced, but didn't make a sound. His bruises ached, a numb pulsing, but it faded. The wounds he'd gained over time healed with a searing pain. His whole back burned for a moment, but it too faded it to a blissful lack of sensation.

When all the pain had ended Harry carefully stood, finding that all his muscles could move freely. His arms were still cut up but they looked a bit more healed, and his bruises didn't ache quite as much. His energy seemed full supplied and he smiled, but moved into the shadows of the room immediately. If someone glanced in he didn't want them to know he was alright.

No one did look, or enter for an hour or two. Harry was able to get some restful sleep and when he awoke to movement he felt even better than before. Something was in his room, but he had a hard time seeing it. It was as if every time he tried to look at the person his eyes continued past them. After trying nearly a dozen times he looked away, focusing.

"It's alright Harry," a voice said quietly. "You're not supposed to be able to see me. That's how I snuck in."

Relieved that it was Blaise, Harry nodded, no longer trying to look at her.

"Did you take the potion?" Blaise asked. Harry nodded again.

Something slipped into his pocket again, a different vial, and Harry blinked, looking at the ground. "How are we getting out of here, you said you had a Portkey."

"I do," Blaise said. "But we can't use it here; there are very strong wards against it. We need to get out of the dungeons so that we can use it. The vial I put in your pocket is a dose of the same potion I'm using. Don't drink it until I say. I need to be able to find you if we're going to leave together. Your wand is there too, I switched it for a spare. I didn't get both of them though, so you'll only have one. Don't reach for it yet, don't worry about it until you've drunk the potion."

Harry nodded. "Alright, what do I do?"

"Just wait a moment," Blaise said. "I need to go make sure that no one else is watching your cell. It was difficult to get in unnoticed and the guard might have returned. If he is not there I'll take your hand and as soon as I do that I want you to drink the potion. Don't let go of me or we won't be able to find each other. You'll get lost down here, do you understand?"

For the third time Harry nodded. "What if the guard is there?" he asked.

"Then I'll stun him when he's not looking and we'll have to hurry out of here. There are not a lot of options right now. Hermione and I discussed every possible method of escape."

"Hermione?" Harry gasped. "But she's dead!" he hissed. "I saw it."

"No," Blaise replied quietly, her voice had moved to the doorway. "What those saw were not your friends. No one other than you was captured. Death Eaters often use special transfiguration methods on muggles when they torture people."

"Then Ron, Luna, Ginny, Mrs. Weasley… they're all alive?"

"Yes," Blaise hissed. "Just keep quiet, you'll see them all soon."

Harry nodded, his heart beating faster. If Blaise was telling him the truth and they were all alive… he took a deep breath, trying to keep his excitement from bubbling over. But then he remembered that people had still died. Even if they were muggles, even the worst of muggles, he couldn't be happy about them dying. They were dead, and that meant that they had died because of him, because the Death Eaters wanted to see him suffer.

Frowning he closed his eyes. He needed to focus on the task at hand instead of worrying about them right now. Once he was free he could worry about everyone else, but until then he needed to worry about his own safety. If this escape attempt failed he doubted that there would be another that got this close to him. They would know and they would keep even better watch on him.

"Alright," a voice hissed through the door and Harry paused. There was something wrong, something different in the tone of the voice it was almost strangled, like she was trying not to talk. It sounded like Blaise, but it didn't sound like her, as if he was hearing an echo of something. Instead of leaving immediately he peaked through the door and saw a hooded figure standing there.

Almost immediately he knew it wasn't Blaise. Even if she was dressed as a Death Eater she had said the potion made it so that he couldn't see her. Instead of leaving immediately Harry tried to think. His hand slipped into his pocket and fingered his wand instinctively. He knew that he couldn't give it up, not again. But he was having troubles thinking of what to do. It was possible it was Blaise, perhaps the potion had worn off and she was normal again. Would she even know it? He had to take the chance. If he was going to escape he couldn't just wait until the Death Eaters came barging in with spells flying.

Once he'd decided to take the chance Harry moved back slightly, adjusting his robes and fixing them as best as possible with his wand. He only spent a moment on them, but he needed something that wouldn't get in his way. Once he'd done that he tucked his wand carefully under his robe, making sure it wasn't visible. It might be to his advantage to not show them that he had a wand, because they might not know about it.

"What," he asked through the door. It cracked open as if letting him out, but no words came. Something wasn't right and he began to rethink his decision. Shaking his head, Harry pushed the thought back. He had his wand, he'd make sure that he got out safely, and Blaise was coming with him. Even if she was captured, he'd find her. He couldn't just leave her after she'd come for him.

Stepping through slowly, he got a moment to stare at the figure before something thumped him on the back of the head. The resulting crash on the ground broke the vial in his pocket. He felt the shattered glass enter his leg, leaving his leg cut up terribly bad. He ignored the pain though, trying to get back to his feet as quickly as possible.

A spell struck him just after he made it to his knees, sending him flying across the hall. He slammed into a wall violently, and fell to the ground, blood spewing from his face. He touched his face instinctively and found that his nose was at a very crooked angle and was the reason for a great deal of the blood. His eyes hurt, his glasses had broken and slivers of them were in his face, but none had entered his eyes.

He moved as he heard another curse thrown at him, and in an instant he had launched himself to the side. The time he got from avoiding the curse was enough to pull himself to his feet and pull out his own wand.

The Death Eater must not have known he had a wand because when Harry rounded on him his own wand was lowered and it looked as if he was trying to make a decision. While an unarmed Harry might have been easy to capture Harry knew he wasn't going to be so easily taken. He was shouting even before he thought about it. "EXPELLIARMUS!"

The figure he'd first seen on the other side of the door, the one that had used magic on him, was thrown across the room. He hit the wall so hard that Harry wasn't sure if he'd killed the man or just knocked him out.

The second man, the one who he hadn't seen, was holding Blaise to him, wand at her throat. The other hand was holding a large piece of wood, or something similar, he couldn't make it out well. Harry suspected that it was what had struck him from behind. The Death Eater looked edgy, because he couldn't use his wand on Harry and keep Blaise in check.

Not sure exactly how to handle the situation, Harry looked around, trying to determine if there were other threats. Out of the corner of his eye he could still see Blaise and the guard. It was difficult to actually look at her, but because she was being held he was able to actually see her. It could also be because he no longer had his glasses and his eyes were not focusing well. Blaise was carefully reaching into her pocket. He suspected she was reaching for the Portkey, because they would have taken her wand. But, she might have something else in there too. He needed to distract the man holding her.

"What do you want," Harry asked. "A trade? You let her go and I become a prisoner again?"

It wasn't exactly the best trade, he didn't want to be a prisoner again, but if Blaise did get away he was sure that she would find him again, even if they took him elsewhere. He wasn't going to let her get hurt because she'd come to save him. One thing he knew that even if he was tortured there was only one person who would be able to kill him, Voldemort, and until that happened he would fight back. It was nice to know that she was still on his side, and that someone was still trying to find him. For all he knew they could all think he was dead.

"No trade," the man said gruffly, moving forward awkwardly. "You're both going to be prisoners here. I don't know who this is, or care. I don't even know how she got in, but she'll certainly be tortured for trying such a heroic deed, we'll find out eventually."

Keeping a distance between himself and the Death Eater, Harry stepped backwards. He needed to find a way to get to the man, but Blaise was a great shield and it was difficult to differentiate where she ended and where he began in the dimly lit halls. The only thing he could distinguish well was the white masks of both of them.

"What if I don't care if she dies?" Harry asked quickly, wondering if he would risk firing a curse at the both of them. The problem was that he didn't know if he'd hit both of them, with Blaise shielding once she was hit, the man was free to duel with him. It would be nice if he knew a strong enough spell that it would affect both of them, but he didn't, or at least he was pretty sure he couldn't.

Harry could hear the sneer in the man's voice. "Harry Potter is a hero! He won't let someone die, especially his rescuer. I heard about what you did when we invaded the headquarters of the order. Jumping in front of a killing curse to save an Auror is quite a heroic deed."

Harry squirmed. The man was right, he knew Harry too well. If he knew it, then they probably all knew it. He was going to have to do something major. "Forgive me," he whispered and raised his wand.

"CRUCIO!" he bellowed, trying to want the man to be in pain. It was difficult, because no matter how angry he was he couldn't want the Blaise to feel the power of the curse. Still, it knocked the man off his balance, causing him to take a few steps back. Harry moved forward, trying to catch the man before he was able to regain his balance, but he wished the he could be behind the man. As he moved he felt the magic build and was surprised as he stepped through the warp hole that apparated him. Quite suddenly he found he was standing in the doorway of his cell again, staring at the back of the man.

"Stupefy!" he bellowed and the stunned man collapsed, pulling Blaise down with him.

"Let's go," he said, pulling her out of the man's grasp. He reached over again, and took the wand from within the man's pocket, handing it to Blaise. He took the second wand and tucked it into his own belt. Blaise was already bent over the second man, and took his wand as well. He watched as she conjured ropes around both the man and used a second stunning curse on them.

"Alright, follow me," she said after glancing at him, her eyes filled with wonder. Harry wondered how he was able to use his apparating technique inside the building. He knew it wasn't exactly apparating, Tonks had proven that to him. But, whatever it was didn't matter, he had already tried doing it before. Then again, he had only tried to apparate _out_ of the building last time he'd tried. Maybe the wards somehow stopped that. However, his head was throbbing badly and he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to do it again. He could barely focus enough to see what was going on in front of him. Besides, Blaise had a Portkey, all they had to do was get to somewhere where it'd work.

As they ran Harry saw Blaise use the wand on herself. He couldn't see it that well; his glasses had been broken during the battle moments before. However she shimmered and Harry could no longer see even a blurred form. Her fingers laced into his, gripping him tightly. "I just removed the counter spell they'd used on me," she hissed, then yanked him forward. "We're not going to be safe here, they'll know magic was used and come check soon."

They ran. Harry found it was difficult to keep up with her. Between the curses he'd taken the brunt of and the head wounds, and blood loss he was having bouts of lightheadedness. It didn't matter if he got a little sick, he was sure that Madam Pomfrey would be able to fix him up nice and it was a whole lot better than staying around and being tortured for longer.

They came to a winding staircase and Harry heard shouts behind him. He had a brief glimpse of a masked Death Eater in motion before he was pulled up the stairs and out of view. He tried to say something, but found it came out as a cough. His lungs were restricting again and it was slowly becoming more difficult to breathe.

For a moment Harry lost his footing and stumbled, only to be yanked back to his feet by Blaise. "Be careful," she yelled, slowing for only the moment it took to right him. Then, she yanked him again and continued up the stairs.

The stairs continued to wind in circles, going on and on. The Death Eaters were shouting below them, and though Harry never caught sight of them he knew they were there only a few yards back. From the voices he heard he thought there must be at least a dozen, likely more.

When they finally appeared the Death Eater wasn't looking up, but looking down, trying to keep from falling. He glanced up and looked back down, but his head rose again in surprise just as Harry yelled a strong stunning charm. The man was blown backwards, hopefully holding up the other Death Eaters behind him. There were shouts of alarm, but the running stopped momentarily. Blaise stopped a minute later, dropping his hand as she fumbled with the door. She tried an unlocking charm but it didn't work either.

When it wouldn't open she snorted and shouted a curse that Harry had never heard. The door exploded outward with a great deal of force, knocking aside to Death Eaters who had been waiting just beyond. Harry grinned. "I'll have to learn that curse," he said as fingers wrapped around his wrist and yanked him. His head throbbed from the violent movement. They moved into a dark area, some sort of side-room and Blaise fumbled in her pocket. "Salazar," she hissed, and then Harry felt a heart shaped locket shoved into his hand. Nothing happened.

Blaise panicked. "It should have worked!" she said.

"They said that Portkeys didn't work here at all," Harry said helpfully, a little too cheery for the situation. His head was bothering him and even though he knew he shouldn't be happy he couldn't help it.

Blaise looked up at him, a wild gleam in her eyes. Several Death Eaters poured out of the door they'd just come through and Harry was jerked as Blaise set off running again, holding his hand still. "The outer door is on this floor, but we're in the middle of the mansion."

"Protego!" Harry shouted, putting up another shield behind them as nearly a dozen hexes headed their way. All of them got through, but it slowed and changed their course. He stumbled twice more. Blaise kept tugging on him, and was the only reason he was able to stay on his feet.

Death Eaters seemed to be filling in all around them, coming from doorways that didn't exist until the Death Eaters appeared. Many of those who appeared were unmasked and Harry giggled between curses, they all seemed so shocked.

Though it was a simple spell Harry simply continued to wave his wand shouting stupefy over and over again. He was able to get a few of them, which in turn tripped up others, but most of his charms were met with other curses and shattered mid-flight.

When Blaise finally let go of his hand he knew they were in trouble, but it was a distant thought in his mind. He giggled again as more Death Eaters appeared in front of them. For a moment his mind cleared and he shoved Blaise towards a side room. "Get out," he said, still lucid. He knew that they couldn't see her and she'd be able to go further without him making them both a target. "Get me later," he added, trying not to say it too loud.

"No," Blaise said defiantly.

"You get out now or I'll curse you!" Harry growled, then raised another golden shield just before a dozen curses put pockmarks in it. He wasn't sure what was going on. His shield had never been strong enough to stave off many spells, especially if they were strong. Someone must have ordered them to be careful and not allow him to get too badly injured. "I trust you. They can't curse you properly if they can't see you, so just get out. I still have a few options."

For a moment he thought she was going to defy him and try to fight. He knew that if they were too serious he wouldn't be able to win. Then, he felt the brush of her fingers against his hand and she was gone. He moved sideways, away from the direction she'd taken, avoiding spells. Even though he couldn't see them clearly, he was able to make them out and avoid them.

He gave a sideways glance to the room that Blaise had entered and noticed that a window had shattered. He suspected she was going out that way and wondered if that might be his best bet too. He could apparate, and anywhere was better than here. Still, when he moved again he moved away from the window, Blaise needed a little more time.

Some of the Death Eaters seemed to have read his movements and he was unable to avoid all the curses. One of them struck him quite hard and an explosion of pain filled him as he was thrown clear of the throng of Death Eaters. Whatever curses they had been using had now been upgraded. Another struck him in the stomach and he suddenly felt horribly ill. More curses struck him and he flew around the room like a rag doll being batted around by the Death Eaters.

Nearly naked, and horribly injured once more Harry tried to avoid more curses. He could no longer feel most of his body, and he wasn't even sure if he still had his wand. His right eye had already swelled shut and blood was entering his left so he was having troubles keeping it open. Trying with all his might he focused on the window where Blaise had jumped, but Tonks came to him. She reached out and touched him like a ghost of a memory.

A hold formed and Harry collapsed into it, hoping that wherever it opened would be away from the Death Eaters.

When he crashed it was on a table, he could smell food, and feel it in the parts of his body that he could still sense. He looked up and recognized the now blood-spattered face of Draco Malfoy.

"Help," he groaned, not sure where exactly he was. If Draco was there he was probably at Hogwarts, but then he couldn't apparate within the Hogwarts grounds, so Draco must have left. He hated to think that he was still somewhere within the Death Eater stronghold he'd been in.

Screams echoed through Harry's head. Draco stepped back, and leaned over to puke. And the last thing he heard was someone who sounded vaguely like Tonks scream his name.

• Updated 2004.10.06 •


	21. Waking

Chapter 21

• Waking •

Someone was touching him. Harry cringed as a hand ran through his hair, he had dreamed escaping. But, it was all wrong, he couldn't feel her lap as he usually did, instead he was surrounded by a soft feeling. However, the hand through his head was too familiar, too much like what Cin did to him. He knew that he dreamed it all even before he opened his eyes.

His body hurt, but not like it had before. Harry opened his eyes slowly, hoping that he wasn't still in the cell, he felt as if he might die if he was. Still, he'd promised himself that he would live if only to destroy Voldemort. That meant sacrifice.

His vision was blurred at first, he wasn't sure what he was seeing, but it was bright.

The movement through his hair stopped and he felt something breathing in his ear. "Harry," the voice said.

Tears began running down his cheeks. "Tonks?" he asked, finding it was difficult to breathe.

"I'm here. You're alright, you escaped." She said, continuing to softly breath the words into his ear. It felt wonderful that someone he knew well, and trusted, was so close to him. "I'm proud of you Harry," she said, pulling away. and then he felt his head being moved until it was pressed against her and he could feel her breathing. She sobbed, pulling him tighter. "Don't ever do that to me Harry, I'll kill you myself."

Harry nodded and sobbed into her chest. He didn't know how to react to her being there, but all he could do was cry.

When Tonks pushed him over a little he was happy to oblige her crawling into the bed with him, he needed someone to hold him close and Tonks had been doing it for quite a while. Even during his torture he'd envisioned himself waking at night, curled up next to her. It felt so good to be with someone and just be comforted.

Madam Pomfrey entered into the room a few minutes later. He only saw a blob and was surprised when she was instantly in his face. Tonks still had a hand around him, holding him close, and Madam Pomfrey glanced at her, but said nothing. She smiled, and then pulled away. "We're going to have to do something about that vision of yours," she said quietly, checking his vitals. "Every time you get in here you've broken or lost your glasses."

Unsure what she meant Harry opened his mouth, his throat still hurt, and his chest seared with pain again. "Don't speak," Madam Pomfrey chided, moving Tonks' hand again just slightly. "The spell they used on you is restricting the size of your throat. It's been very difficult to remove and it will be a while before the side effects go away. Besides, you don't want to wake her up. She has hardly slept since you disappeared, I believe she felt she was partially at fault."

Harry frowned and fought back the tears in his eyes. He felt Madam Pomfrey's hand on his chest. "I don't know about removing this ring though," she said, touching it with her wand. "It was not put their by magic and your body has healed around it, I think that removing it would be a great deal more painful than leaving it in. If you would like, I could remove it, but I warn against it."

Carefully, moving around Tonks' hand, Harry touched the ring that was buried in his chest. He would leave it as a reminder of the oath he'd taken. When he touched it he was reminded of why he took the oath and he looked up. "Ron, Hermione, they're not here," he commented hoarsely.

"Mr. Weasley and Mrs. Granger spent the last three days in and out of this hospital. I sent them both back to their beds to get some sleep. I doubt they will be gone much longer though."

Harry sighed with relief, he smiled and relaxed. "Blaise?" he asked tentatively. At the moment he wasn't sure if she had acted with others, and he knew that he couldn't just talk about it. She was a spy and had risked a great deal for him, the least he could do was keep quiet.

"Ms. Zabini?" the matron questioned, eyeing Harry with a hint of curiosity. "I wasn't aware you had a friendship with the young woman. She has been in here, twice in the last three days, and for minor injuries. I did notice she seemed to linger a while even after she was healed."

_Of course_, Harry thought, _if she was working alone she obviously wouldn't want someone to know she was checking in on me._ He stopped thinking further about it though, she was doing things covertly, so he would keep quiet as well.

"Is Mrs. Weasley alright?" he asked. Even if some of them had been props it didn't mean that all of them were.

"Ginny or Molly Weasley?" Madam Pomfrey asked, stopping to look down at him.

"Both," Harry said, hoping she would know.

"Well, Ginny Weasley has been in here a few times with her brother. As for the current situation with Molly Weasley, I am unaware of how she is doing. I hear that you know about certain things that have arisen?" Harry nodded. "Well, as far as I know she is doing well since the initial attack."

When Madam Pomfrey was done she expanded the bed a little and leaned over Harry. "I don't know what the she is doing in your bed, but I don't plan on taking her away. I'm afraid I might lose something important to me. It would be best if she did not sleep with you though."

As comfortable as it felt, Harry understood what she was saying. It wasn't as if they were doing anything, but it would quickly be taken the wrong way. "Can you put me in another bed?" he asked, barely able to say the words. He didn't want to leave her, but he didn't want her to get into trouble either.

A few minutes later, Harry was asleep in a bed right next to Tonks, a few feet from her, but with a sheet hanging between their beds. It was pulled back near their heads so Harry could see Tonks, but other than that there was no apparent contact.

An hour of endless noise later Harry was greeted to two of his best friends almost suffocating him with hugs. After the finally let go he gave them a lopsided grin and pushed himself to a sitting position with some difficulty.

"Hey," he said softly, smiling. Hermione and Ron were staring at him.

"You alright mate?" Ron asked. "You look different," he added, as he stared at Harry.

Hermione punched him. "He didn't mean anything by it Harry, we're just glad to have you back."

"Yeah, Tonks most of all," Ron said, glancing at the bed next to Harry's. "You should have _seen_ her when you appeared. She threw a table out of the way. Jumped on the Slytherin table and ran down it, kicking food everywhere. She cursed half the students who got near you. Damn near killed one of them. It's too bad Malfoy was bent over puking, wish she would have done the same thing to that git. Prattling on about how you were dead, he deserved more."

Hermione glared at him, but didn't attack him again. She smiled as sweetly as possible when she turned back to Harry. "She didn't nearly kill anyone. She only broke someone's leg trying to get them from pawing you. I think she knew that having others touching you might cause you more damage."

He stared at him, tears in her eyes. "You should have seen yourself Harry. Covered in blood, robes torn to shreds, some of the Slytherins thought you were dead. Tonks, well, she wasn't exactly happy when you disappeared. She's been blaming herself for it the whole time and when she saw you there looking like you were near death she didn't take it well."

Harry glanced towards Tonks, who was sleeping comfortably, though she looked slightly disturbed. Then he turned back and looked at Hermione. "She told me to wait for her," he said quietly, "so that she could help me. I didn't, I had to go help everyone before it was too late."

Dumbledore entered the room. Harry saw him out of the corner of his eye. Hermione started to say something, but he glanced at her and something showed in his face because she immediately shut her mouth. Dumbledore was looking pale, and slightly withdrawn, but his eyes still sparkled.

"You have overcome the odds yet again Harry," he said proudly. Harry turned away, not really wanting to meet the eyes of Dumbledore. The old man wasn't exactly the first person he wanted to have a long conversation with, but then, he did feel a little comforted that he was there.

Seeming to understand, Dumbledore turned away, patting Hermione and Ron on the shoulder, then left the room. Madam Pomfrey bustled in again and shooed away Ron and Hermione. "I'll still be here later," Harry said weakly, trying to crack a smile.

Even though it didn't happen Ron grinned at him. "Yeah, we'll come back."

As he turned to leave he finally noticed the bed surrounded by a curtain and, curious, he peaked in. When he looked back at Harry his grin was even wider, but he didn't say anything else. Hermione took to shoving him out the door instead of letting him linger with a goofy grin, and when the door closed behind them Harry collapsed back onto the bed.

Madam Pomfrey spent several minutes doing things that Harry didn't understand, but he watched anyway (as best he could) and tried to dedicate the actions to his memory. Tonks had told him that being an Auror was about learning from everything around and now that he was safe he had decided to dedicate himself even more to training. Tonks was around, and hopefully she'd help him.

After she was done, the matron disappeared into the back room again. The door opened and Harry watched to see who had entered.

It wasn't a single person though, instead it was a group, and when he saw the person leading the pack he leaned back, sinking into his cushion and closing his eyes. He really didn't want top speak to Malfoy at the moment. Still, it was sort of nice to see him, and if he was up to it, he'd stand up and mock the bastard.

Through half-open eyes, Harry saw that, surprisingly, Blaise was not far behind Malfoy. She leaned forward, whispered something in his ear, and then slowed. Draco didn't even show he heard, but a moment later he started making a fuss about how the Slytherins never got prompt treatment. A few of the others voiced their agreement and Madam Pomfrey appeared from her office, scurrying forward to help whichever Slytherin had gotten hurt.

The other Slytherins crowded around the table of Mr. Pharnax, or whatever his name was, but Blaise had made it to the back of the pack and slipped away without anyone noticing her. Harry smirked as the veil around him slid shut, keeping Blaise from being viewed.

"You made a scene returning," Blaise said before Harry could speak. Her lips curled up in a smirk. "Luckily enough for me I was in the common room, sick. I hear that Ms. Tonks put more than one Slytherin in the hospital wing."

"I'm alive," Harry whispered throatily, trying to keep his voice down. He could still hear the Slytherins complaining loudly on the other side of the room.

"That you are. Draco informed me of your return and told me it was expected that I make things right. Apparently he doesn't want you reporting where the information came from. He also told me to insure you that what I told you was not meant to trap you."

Blaise paused again, glancing over her shoulder. She leaned in closer, her dark hair falling around Harry. She was close enough that he could feel the heat from her breath. "I can't _believe_ you were stupid enough to get caught in the attack," she hissed. "You'll ruin everything doing something like that. If you _ever_ pull that again I'll be looking for another means of survival. I am not going to go and risk my life again just because you have to save the world twice over."

Harry blinked, having trouble focus on Blaise words, having her so close to his face was throwing off his perceptions and making it difficult to think at all. "Sorry," he whispered. "I didn't think..."

"Exactly," Blaise snapped, straightening herself. "Now, I assure you that the Dark Lord is more than a little angry. He almost killed every Death Eater that allowed you to escape. It was something that I would rather not witness again. When he showed up, I was almost discovered, I had to hide in the back and wait until he addressed all of the Death Eaters. If I would have gotten to close, or made eye contact, he would have known about the potion and the escape plan. You and I are going to have to work on my occlumency as soon as you're out of this bed."

"Alright," Harry replied weakly, a hint of a smile. "But I need to thank you for helping me."

"I expect you to do it for me should I ever be in a similar situation. That is enough, so it doesn't need to be brought up again."

Harry nodded, trying to keep his smile from spreading. He could see how relieved Blaise was that he was there. He sat up and wrapped his arms around her. There was a startled squeak and Blaise took a step back, pulling away from Harry's hug. "Thank you," he whispered before Blaise fled through the curtain around his bed.

Tonks slept for nearly a full day. Harry was thinking to himself when she woke, having got more sleep and woken to find her still asleep. He heard a jerk and a scraping sound. He glanced up to see a body fall through his curtain and he groaned in pain when she landed on top of him, wrapped in the white veil that had separated them. Luckily enough, Madam Pomfrey had been able to finish healing most of the worst wounds and it didn't hurt so much as surprise him.

He stared down at her frightened face and tried to smiled but groaned when she tried to move and ended up striking him with her elbow. "Tonks," he said, grabbing her struggling figure when he caught his breath. She calmed considerably and stared up at him. It looked as if she was fighting off tears.

"You're alive," she said, "it wasn't a dream."

Harry smiled brightly, happy to see her back to her old self. It made him feel much better knowing that she was going to be fine. After the way she'd acted earlier he had wondered if she'd been emotionally scarred.

"Yeah," he said and sat up, holding the sheet she'd rolled into. "Now, let's get you out of this thing."

•

When he was released from the hospital no one was around. It was mid-day and Harry made his way through the corridors slowly, his hand running along the cool stone walls of the castle, remembering and appreciating the things that had gone on in the castle. After being imprisoned by Voldemort the Dursley's seemed mild and Hogwarts seemed wonderful, almost like the first time he'd come to it. It had been a long time since he'd stood and gawked at his new home, and he didn't do it again, instead he stood and just remembered it, took in the feelings that he felt and smiled.

"You are remembering?" someone asked, and Harry opened his eyes to find himself staring at a crown of soda tabs on top of a blonde head. He smiled immediately, knowing that for anyone else the question might have been implying something, but for Luna it was a straightforward question.

"Sometimes I forget to remember," he said quietly.

"Everyone forgets to remember," she said vaguely, with a smile on her face. Harry could see she had several books in her hands.

"Going to class?" he asked quickly.

She nodded. "Professor Trelawney told me I would be late today," she revealed, as if it were perfectly normal for her to be showing up late because Sybil Trelawney had told her so. Harry smiled, not even asking what had caused her tardiness, or if she'd simply waited so that she was late, it wouldn't surprise him.

"Can I take your books?" he asked, having nothing better to do. Just talking to a friend was making him even happier, and he didn't really want to go into an empty common room.

"Certainly," said, holding them out for Harry to take.

As they walked down the halls Harry asked her about her summer and listened to the stories she had. Unfortunately, they hadn't been able to take a trip to find the Crumple-Horned Snorkack that she'd spoken about last year. They had however, had someone send them a Blibbering Humdinger in a bottle. Apparently Luna's father had not read the parchment, and opened the bottle first, interested in what had been sent to him. He'd been thrown from his feet and knocked unconscious when the beast had jumped from the bottle. When he awoke the whole room was in ruin and the Blibbering Humdinger had escaped.

They reached the landing to the Divination room and Harry saw the ladder waiting for them. He handed Luna her books, wished her a good day, and then left Luna to the ravings of the old fraud.

Since the Gryffindor towers were even further than before, Harry decided that it might be easier to just go to the Great Hall and wait for everyone there, since classes would be over in half an hour. He began down the stairs when a small ball of energy struck him midriff, knocking him to the ground. "Harry Potter sir!" the ball of energy said and Harry smiled when he recognized dobby clinging to him. "Dobby is hearing of you coming back. He is trying not to come and let other see him, but he can not wait anymore."

Harry, glad to see the energetic elf, couldn't help but smile. "It's alright Dobby," he assured the elf. "I don't mind."

Harry noticed a wet sensation in his robes and when dobby pulled away to talk to him he noticed that the elf's eyes were poring tears. "Master Harry Potter sir," he sobbed, "Dobby is so sorry for letting you get captured. Dobby is punishing himself for letting you leave. He is thinking that Master is not coming back and is trying to find Master himself. But, he is unable, and he is scared. Masters friend though, they is telling Dobby that they is going to save you and he believes them. He even helps them when they is going into the forest."

"Friends?"

"Missus Grangers and Missus Zabini's sir. They is telling Dobby that they is having a plan and is needing his help to get Master free."

"Blaise and Hermione were working together?" Harry wondered out loud.

"They is sir," Dobby exclaimed. "They is needing Dobby for all sorts of things." Dobby paused for a moment. "Dobby is thinking that Missus Grangers is knowing that Harry Potter is Dobby's master now," he said quietly, flinching slightly, waiting for Harry to get angry at him.

Harry sighed and wondered when that was going to be brought up. Hermione certainly wouldn't let it rest. "It's alright Dobby. It was going to happen sooner or later, might as well face it now when she's not going to get too angry at me. Anyway, t might be best if I get down to the Great Hall now. Tonks is going to be there and classes'll be out soon."

Dobby nodded and then looked up, his face scrunched in thought. "Dobby is thinking sir..." he said, and Harry looked up, surprised.

"Thinking?" he asked, curious to know what Dobby was thinking, usually he didn't think, he just did, and the last time dobby had revealed he was thinking about something Harry had ended up being his master. Not that it was an altogether bad thing, it was just something that he wasn't quite read to do then.

"Dobby is thinking about how Master Harry Potter wants to help Winky and Dobby is thinking of a way. He is finding something while he is looking for Harry Potter, something that might help Winky forget."

Relieved, Harry smiled. "If you can get her to do it, go ahead, I want Winky cured just as bad as you do. Just don't tell Hermione that you're having her do work."

Dobby's head bobbed up and down so fast that Harry wasn't sure if it was going to fall off. "It's not going to cost me anything, is it?" Harry asked in an after thought. Dobby shook his head and Harry just nodded. "Then go ahead and do it, you've got my permission to help her out as best as possible even if it takes away from helping me."

A moment later, Dobby was gone, and Harry was again alone. He made his way to the great hall as quickly as possible, stopping twice as he remember things that had happened in the past. The first was on the landing that lead down to the next floor and up to the third floor corridor that had hidden Fluffy, the monstrous three headed dog he'd had to get past in his first year. He smiled, remembering when he Ron ad Hermione had first encountered it. They hadn't even been friends then, well, he and Ron hadn't been, Hermione had been tagging along to insure that they didn't get in trouble. She'd been the reasons they didn't get in trouble, but she was also the reason that they'd discovered something was there and being guarded. Harry doubted that they would have even known about the Sorcerer's Stone if she hadn't been around at the time.

He continued down, making sure to jump the trick step. When Peeves appeared he smiled wider. "Hello Peeves!" he exclaimed and then continued on down the stairs, leaving a bewildered Peeves floating halfway up the stairwell. He got to the first floor and stopped again as he passed by the doorway to the girls restroom. A small pool of water was making its way under the door and Harry grinned even wider, wondering why Myrtle had flooded the bathroom again. He considered going in to talk to her for a moment, but thought it might be better to do it when no one might see him entering or exiting. A lot had gone on in that room too. They'd brewed a potion that he was suppose to know about for the O.W.L.s, not even something they were expected to be able to brew. It was mostly Hermione, and he was sure if the potion showed up on the N.E.W.T.s she'd pass with flying colors. She probably remember a great deal about its effects, especially the side-effects should the potion go wrong.

It was the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets too, where a skeleton of the monster of the school lay, the Basilisk that had killed Myrtle and almost killed numerous others. So many good and bad things had happened there, and through the rest of the school. It was amazing to Harry that now none of it seemed all that unusual, he'd done so many things in his life over the past few years and he rarely thought about them at all as amazing as they were to others.

When he entered the Great Hall he was smiling brightly, happy that he was alive and had had so many adventures in the past few years. Even though they had been reckless, even deadly, they had been adventures, and made his life – which had been rather boring up to that point – much more fun than he could have even imagined when he was a child. He was living a life that was rather like a dream with hero's and villains, good and evil, life and death.

Some of the things that had happened had been a great loss, but now that he was seeing it all from the larger perspective it didn't seem so bad. He hoped one day that he was going to see Sirius again, but he finally understood that right now he needed to focus on the part of his life that hadn't died, the things that were important now. Sirius was dead and there was nothing he could do about it, it was time to move on, he understood now.

• Updated 2004.12.07 •


	22. Rebirth

I updated toto. See, I haven't given up. Happy?

Chapter 22

• Rebirth •

Sitting alone in the Room of Requirements, Harry didn't know what to think. He'd walked in and it had immediately become the bungalow he'd stayed in while on Icaria. It was quite, spacious, but missing something, something the room couldn't bring him. He sat, letting the breeze tickle his face, and he smelled the perfumed scent that had always been present, as if it were the wind itself.

Then, he pushed it away, knowing that it wasn't going to happen anytime soon. Tonks was gone again, she had barely stayed a day. When she'd been called back to work she threatened to quit, but Harry wouldn't let her. Now it was four days later and he was regretting it. He loved Ron and Hermione, they were excellent friends, but Tonks was something else. She hadn't even kissed him goodbye. He supposed he deserved that, for all the pain he'd put her through.

"I'll always be listening," she said just before leaving, pointing to the necklace she was wearing.

The door opened and Harry's thoughts focused on something more Spartan, something clean and empty. He wanted the meeting to be very straightforward tonight. Dinner had gotten over almost an hour ago, and even though it was twenty minutes until the meeting was planned, he knew people would start filtering in.

He took a seat at the head of the table, nodding at Luna, who was again the first one in the room. She looked elated about something, and wandered all the way around the table twice before sitting halfway between Harry and the other end of the table. She didn't speak, or even make eye contact, she just played with a small piece of glass that looked rather like it belonged in a pair of glasses.

Harry smiled as the second visitor entered, and he looked to Luna, who was completely ignoring her. Then he nodded towards a door that appeared in the wall. "Wait there," Harry said and in turn received a threatening look. "Don't worry, it's as large as I feel it needs to be."

The person frowned, and started to say something, but decided against it and slipped into the doorway. Harry glanced to Luna again, who had looked up, but had a dazed expression that meant she probably wasn't going to say anything.

By the time the room had filled up it was almost ten minute past, and there were almost a dozen people that Harry was sure hadn't been in the DA before. He looked to Hermione, who was surveying them all with interest, scribbling some things down on parchment she'd pulled from her bag. Ron was trying to make small talk with Seamus once he found out that Harry wasn't in the mood to talk.

There was a good deal of small talk going on when Harry finally stood up abruptly, his chair screeching as it slid out behind him. The room instantly went silent, and Harry smiled, thinking about how they instantly responded to him. Was the ministry right? Was he creating a sort of army, perhaps not specifically for Dumbledore, because he was rather disillusioned with Dumbledore at the moment, but still an army.

"I have been told that everyone did an excellent job of protecting the castle," Harry said quietly. The room echoed even the quiet voice, making him sound sharp, superior, even though he hadn't intended it.

Several people smiled. Harry had heard it from a lot of the teachers, how the DA had really helped keep things running smoothly, that it was likely nothing would have been ready without them. He'd also heard they had fought off some of the enemies who'd made it through. However, most of them had been Hogsmeade residents, and only two real Death Eaters had gone in. Still, they'd all been stopped before making it to the other students, and that had been the point.

"I know Dumbledore has already publicly thanked you in front of the rest of the school, but I would like to thank you as well. You're all dedicated to fighting Voldemort –" a wave of shudders passed through the table. Harrry closed his eyes for a moment, having forgotten that they still weren't over the name yet. He'd fic them of that soon enough though. "That may not be the original reason you're here, you all came last year to learn defense when that _woman_ told us there was nothing to fear, that we could learn the theory of defense and instantly be able to use the spell."

The nods of agreement continued down the table. Harry glanced towards the door for a moment and then took a deep breath. "But, we have a Defense teacher this year, a good one from what I've heard. We won't be needing that anymore. This group will not be shut down though," he paused here, not for effect, but to think. He didn't want any of this information to get out, and there were too many people here that weren't bound by the contract.

"If you want to find out what we're going to do this year..." the door opened. The wind howled in the room, apparently having broken its temporary reprieve for the day, and coming back full force. The newcomer pushed the door closed with some trouble, and then turned to face the group again. A cloak was pulled away and Harry blinked, surprised.

"Hello," Marietta Edgecombe said tentatively, trying to keep her eyes set on Harry. "I know I did something last year," she said tentatively, sneaking a glance to Cho, who was staring at her, utterly surprised. "Cho told me I betrayed you all to the ministry. But... I don't remember doing it, and when my coin got warm I thought I might be able to come and..." she stopped, looking rather frightened. It was the first time Harry had seen that particular expression on the girls face. Usually it was a glare and a disapproving look.

Inside Harry wanted to yell and scream at her, let the DA have her for an hour, see how she faired after that. However, he heard the whispers, and they reminded him of the whispers he heard around him. She had done something wrong, she'd betrayed them, but she didn't remember it. Did it feel the same as when people talked about him behind his back for something he didn't do? Or didn't remember doing? He stared at her, saw the lonesome look in her eyes and sighed.

"Wait outside," he said, pointedly. He wasn't ready to trust her with everything yet.

She looked crestfallen, but nodded. Most of the rest of them made loud jeers until Harry slammed his fist into the table. As angry as he was at her, he wasn't going to let them through jeers at her, he had been on the opposite side of it enough time. "Be quiet," he snapped, just before the door opened, and the roar of the wind covered up anything else that was said. Harry had forgotten about the wind, forgotten that the halls were particularly chilly at the moment. However, he dismissed it, he'd apologize later if she was still there.

"As I was saying, the DA is not going to be the same group it was last year. We will be learning defense, I assure you, but it won't be for tests."

A lot of people where waiting for him to continue. But Harry wasn't prepared to quite yet. He looked to Hermione and spoke quietly. "Dumbledore returned the parchment, right?" he asked. Hermione nodded. "Do you have it with you?"

Digging in her bag, Hermione pulled the sheet of paper from it. Harry smiled. "Before we talk about anything else, I'd like for the newcomers to sign the parchment," he glanced at it as he took it from Hermione. Marietta's name was no longer present, but there was a black stain where it looked as if something had been burned with precision. Marietta would be signing again.

"This is only a precaution," he said, looking back up to the group. "And only a temporary measure, it will make sure you don't talk about the things you head today. If you leave, nothing will happen. This will only keep you from talking about the DA, if you're a member or not. I'm sure some of the non-members heard about the repercussions."

A lot of people glanced at the door that Marietta had walked out of only a few minutes before. Harry smiled. "There are other options of course. I could memory charm you, but I don't know the spell well enough, and if I did it and made a mistake—" Harry remembered the sight of Lockhart wandering the halls of Mungo's. "It's not something I'm going to think about. So, it's the parchment again."

As Harry looked out at those seated at the tables adjust themselves, he had an oddly satisfying feeling. Hermione was quite terrifying when she needed to be. "Hermione," Harry said, and she nodded, remembering she was suppose to have the parchment out. Harry had asked her to bring it, and hadn't said anything even though she'd been quite annoying about finding out why he still needed it.

More members exchanged glances, and Harry wondered if they were going to sign. Standing, Harry decided he wasn't going to let people take their time, they were in or out, that was their choice. "This means there is two options. You can sign the parchment now - you'll still have the choice to leave later - or you can join Marietta outside the room and you won't be welcome to return."

"That's a little harsh," Hermione said in a whisper that only Harry could hear. She didn't understand what he was proposing, didn't understand what he wanted to do, and so she didn't know why it was so critical that everyone sign that parchment.

The sheet passed down the table and stopped in front of a chocolate haired boy. He frowned and looked at the paper for a long minute, trying to decide whether to sign it. Another new person, a dark black fellow sitting next to him, pulled quill from somewhere and dipped it in. He made sure to sign his name with flourish, which completely melted away the skepticism that anyone seemed to have. Within minutes the list was back in front of Harry, with everyone's signature on it.

Harry pulled a quill to the side and made sure it was dipped in an inkwell, there was still another person that hadn't signed the list, she'd be signing it soon though. "If you'd like to leave once I've finished, please, feel free to cross your name off the list and leave the room."

Harry glanced towards the side door, he needed to hurry before the person inside got too impatient and burst out. It was sort of funny that the one person that knew about his plans was someone he had barely known before three weeks ago.

"Everyone here had heard about the Department of Mysteries, and what went on there. We proved that even kids can stand up to Death Eaters. We didn't defeat them, but we were strong enough to hold them. I propose we become more than that. That all of us in this room work to fight off Voldemort –" the room shuddered around him and Harry stopped speaking for a moment. " –so that we can say his name without fear, so that we can say that we did something about him."

Both Ron and Hermione were wide-eyed, and several of the other students looked surprised. "I've been fighting him since I came to know I was a wizard," Harry continued. "It seems it's my destiny to do so. I can't stop, I can't let people I know and love be hurt. I think that all of us here understand that, but I don't think you know just how powerful you can be. As a group we can make a change in how much control Voldemort –" another shudder, though Harry could see that, this time, most of the members were trying to fight against it, " –and his Death Eaters have on our world. If we don't fight him he'll win, it's that simple."

"You mean to take him on yourself, if none of us will help?" Zacharias Smith asked smartly. He had grown to be one of Harry's friends, but he was still contemptuous, it was in his nature to question.

"Yes," Harry replied immediately. "If I have to do it myself, I'll do it myself. I'm willing to die to make sure that he doesn't have his way with the magical, and eventually the muggle, world."

No one really understood that Harry was accepting it, accepting that the prophecy was either going to get him killed or get Voldemort killed. No one knew how much his words meant, that it really was his destiny, and that he was accepting his fate, whatever it was.

"I'm in," Zacharias said, shrugging and sitting down. "I see what has happened since the Minister publicly revealed that You-Know-Who back. I saw how it affected my parents, they're afraid to go out. They had Anthony's family come over just so that I could get my stuff at Diagon Alley. They're scared, real scared, and I don't want to be like that when I get older."

Zacharias had been the last person that Harry expected that to come from. Still, he understood Zacharias' thoughts and he could see that several other people were nodding along with him.

"Alright then," Harry said, feeling a little more confident now that someone had backed him up. "I want to make the DA a group that fights Voldemort with whatever means necessary. If you've heard of the Order of the Phoenix you might understand what I'd like to do, but they don't accept us, because we're students. I think we can make just as much of an impact as they can, even though we're still in school."

As Harry finished up he looked along the table, getting a good look at everyone's reactions. Some of them sat in stone faced silence, some frowned, thinking hard, but most of them were nodding along, happy about the proposal. "If anyone wants to leave, now is the time."

Harry had done this the last time they'd met, set it out to see if anyone planned on leaving and he hoped I would work just as well. There was silence for a minute and then a seat scooted out. Harry glanced up to see a the muscular semi-dark boy who'd signed the parchment first stand. He looked vaguely familiar, but Harry was sure it was more than just seen in the halls. He wasn't particularly tall, but the way he moved showed that he was powerful. Harry knew he was one of those who'd kept a stone-face when Harry was talking.

The boy didn't step forward to cross of his name though, he stopped in front of Harry, placed his right hand on Harry's shoulder, and smiled. "You can count me in," he said, smiling. "My older brothers an Auror and fighting for everything he's worth. But, it'll take too long to go through Auror training, if the wars going to start now I won't make it through Auror training before it's over. There's no way I'll let that happen."

"Shacklebolt?" Harry asked, recognizing where he'd seen the strong facial features before. Shacklebolt was a lot darker, and taller, but their faces looked as if they'd been formed from the same mold.

"Yeah, Wesley Shacklebolt," he grinned broader, his white teeth gleaming. "You've met my brother."

"When I was at the ministry last year, just before my trial," Harry said. He could see that Wesley was thinking about something, but nodded and accepted the story all the same. Harry was surprised that he hadn't been to the DA meetings earlier, if he brother was a member of the Order, but it was possible he didn't know, and so Harry wasn't going to comment about it.

"I'm in," another voice spoke up.

"And me."

Harry let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. He was relieved to see that people were willing to fight. He hoped after their first real conflict with a Death Eater they'd still be willing. He was sure that some of them would leave, suddenly grasping that some of them were going to die.

"Good," he said with a nod. "After this meeting tonight I want all of you to think about who you know, and what they might be able to do to help. If your parents are in the ministry, and may know something that isn't being put in the papers I'd be interested in knowing. We're going to have to have sources of information, write your friends and family that might know anything. But, don't be discouraged, and don't be too suspicious either."

Hermione was so shocked that she was still wide-eyed. Harry smiled at her. "Hermione can probably help you out if you need it. She's wonderful at deception when she needs to be." Several people chuckled and Harry was met with a pointed glare from Hermione.

"We're going to need to put everything we know to use. I am personally going to research all the curses, hexes and charms I can, to see if we can't come up with some especially effective curses for the next time we're faced with Death Eaters. "

"About that..."

Harry looked over to Terry Boot, who had her hand half-raised, as if she wasn't sure how she was suppose to ask the question. He nodded to her, and she breathed. "You mentioned the Department of Mysteries earlier, said we'd probably heard all about it. We haven't, not really, we've heard rumors, that those that went beat a whole group of Death Eaters in a duel..." she shifted uncomfortably. "But, that really doesn't sound like something that could happen."

"Voldemort was there too," Harry added, causing everyone to shudder.

"So it's true what we heard?" Terry continued, "you fought a whole group of Death Eaters and you were the ones that walked away?

"That's hardly what happened," Harry said, sighing. He didn't particularly want to talk about the Department of Mysteries, even if he'd accepted Sirius' Death he still had a hard time thinking about it. "I was tricked into going there to get a prophecy that was made about Voldemort –" shudders yet again. "–and I," Harry had finally had enough of it.

"Listen, being afraid of a name only makes you more afraid of a person. It's a name, he's not going to appear to strike you down for saying it. You're only helping him by letting him have that much control over you. Maybe that should be one of the first things we do, learn to say his name without being afraid of it. He's powerful, yeah. But I've dueled with him and survived, he can't be all that powerful. We dueled his Death Eaters last year. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, Neville, all of them. We didn't win, but we didn't exactly lose either."

Harry paused. He didn't want to say what happened, that they'd almost been crushed, that if it hadn't been for the Order of the Phoenix showing up, they probably would have, but he didn't want to lie either. "Neville..." he said, glancing to the boy and seeing the boy staring back, a look that told Harry he'd follow him to the ends of the earth. "Neville showed what it means to be a Gryffindor that night. He proved that, no matter what, he could keep fighting, with or without a wand. He showed that the Death Eaters that night that he's not someone to be taken lightly, and he saved my life."

Breaking eye contact, he could see a few of the DA members glancing to Neville, who hadn't changed his stone face look. Harry could see some pride glimmering in his eyes, pride of Harry acknowledging his strength. "Luna proved she's not as dotty as everyone seems to think. She fought right alongside the rest of us. Ginny, Ron, Hermione," Harry said, not bothering to glance at them. he knew what they would look like, all stone faced, thinking about what had happened. "I couldn't ask for better friends to stand by my side. They got hurt, but they survived, we all did. We didn't win, we weren't strong enough, but we could be."

Harry stopped and let everyone take in what he'd said. He was proud of everyone and how they had acted at the ministry and was willing to show it. Even though he never wanted something like that to happen he was pretty sure that it was unavoidable. Even if the students didn't fight him outright eventually they'd either have to bow to him or fight him when he showed up at their homes.

"This prophecy..." Zacharias started.

Harry looked at him and the words stopped. "It was smashed," Harry said, "and in the confusion of the fight no one heard it."

He was telling the truth, and as much as anyone in the room knew. He didn't mind them knowing that there had been a prophecy, it only kept them thinking about it, about what it could be about.

"There's something else," Harry said, finally getting to the other thing he needed to discuss. He glanced to the door that was semi-concealed at the side of the room, the one that had appeared when he had first come in with Blaise. "In the spirit of inter-house relations, another person has volunteered to join."

On his cue, the door opened and Blaise stepped out, looking a hundred percent Slytherin. She smirked and did a short little bow to Harry before stepping forward. She leaned against him gently, and signing the sheet that he had in front of him. She smirked as she drew away, breathing in his ear for good measure, and then stood behind him, waiting for the onslaught.

No on had spoken the whole time that she'd been moving around, and as she stepped behind him, Ron exploded. "What's she doing here?" he demanded, his fists balled up and his face twisted in revulsion. "She's a Slytherin!"

"Right in one guess," Blaise said with a smirk. "I guess Gryffindors aren't as stupid as they lead us to believe."

Harry turned to her and she shut her mouth while everyone else stared. "He's right," Wesley pointed out "she is a Slytherin. Why is it you think that you can trust her?"

Harry blinked in surprise, he hadn't expected a new DA member to speak out against them. Especially Wesley, his older brother Kingsley didn't seem to be so jaded about things - unless of course it was Death Eaters. However, he didn't know Kingsley that well, so he couldn't say for sure that he was as suspicious.

"Because she's proven her loyalty to me," Harry said quietly, but loud enough that the whole room heard. He glanced to Hermione, the only other person that understood just how far that loyalty had taken her, and saw that she was able to keep a blank face. He looked up at everyone, sort of angry that they were questioning him, even though he understood it. "If anyone has _anything_ to say about her being in the group they can come and speak with me in private. Otherwise, if you're not happy to have a Slytherin in this group, you can leave, no one's keeping you here."

Originally, he had intended to get it out earlier, before everyone else had been given the option to leave, but he'd lost himself and he wasn't exactly the very best leader even though he'd been doing it for well over a year. Looking down at Ron, he could see that his best friend was actually considering leaving, as were a few others. He let them, he didn't want people in the group that were going to cause arguments with one another, it would make things a whole lot more difficult.

"I don't like it," Ron said, staring hard at her. "I don't think any Slytherins can be trusted, look at what they did last year."

"Look at what I did last year," Harry said. "I broke a dozen rules making this club and most of us here today were a part of it. You to Ron, you and Hermione where the one's that convinced me to do it. I'm serious when I say that if you can't live with a Slytherin in the club you need to leave," he said, trying to keep a straight face. It wasn't something that he wanted to do, but he had to, for more than one reason, and he was hoping that, when faced with a decision, Ron would make the right one. He usually did.

"You know I'd never leave you Harry," Ron said, giving Blaise a nasty look. "I just don't trust her."

"Anyone else?" Blaise asked. Harry shivered at the command she showed with her voice. She was a little forceful and he wasn't sure it was going to go over well.

Finally, realizing that she wasn't going to give him an inch unless he pressed it he turned to her. "Sit," he commanded. It seemed to startle Blaise a little, but she nodded and waved her wand, conjuring a seat next to him. He wasn't happy about it, but the table was full, and he couldn't sit her in a seat that was already taken.

"Now," Harry said, finally getting to the part of the meeting that he understood best. "I want to know what everyone has done to keep in practice since the meeting last year that was broken up."

It turned out that only one person had even practiced over the summer, and, to his surprise, it was Luna. "It's not that difficult to get past the wards," she explained airily, as if he'd asked the question everyone was thinking. "Father knows several charms that keep the ministry from invading the privacy of the home. We've even had a few articles about it. They're not even illegal, that would be an invasion of privacy and there are was against it."

Harry gaped. He had never even thought about masking his own magic so that he ministry couldn't detect it. It would have made his life a hell of a lot easier if Dumbledore had just taught him the spell and got it over with.

"Alright then," he said, smiling. "Next meeting Luna is going to teach all of us to disguise magic so that the ministry can't keep track of us when we're practicing. I know that most of us will be of age next summer, but I'd rather prefer it if they didn't know what magic I was using or be able to locate me through magic if I was trying to keep from being found."

"Now, for the rest of the evening, I want everyone to practice on some of the old charms and find out what you need to work on. Focus on that."

Harry spoke a few words to Hermione, and then exited the room to see if Marietta was still waiting outside.

•

The wind had somehow broken one of the unbreakable windows, and the hallway was cold, with water from the rain starting to flood the outer hall. It wouldn't be long before Filch showed up, to fix the window and mop up the water.

Marietta was not in sight. Harry sighed, and turned to enter the doorway again, glad he didn't have to deal wth her, and a little sad that she wasn't dedicated enough to stay. Some part of him had wanted to be able to forgive her, even if the other part wasn't ready for it.

He stopped and stared at a dark spot behind the statue of Jervel and Jaunty, he stared at it for a few moments before he saw it move a little. "Marietta?" he said, then repeated himself, louder so she could hear over the wind. A face peaked out from the black cloak and Harry cringed. He shouldn't have made her wait outside, and he was feeling especially horrible about it when he saw her shivering.

"Why don't we take a walk?" he said, trying to force a smile, and offering her his hand. She nodded slightly and took his hand. Harry had to practically pull her off the floor, and he could see that she was soaked. He sighed, and thought back. It took him a few minutes to remember a drying charm, but he did, and she was soon dry, but still cold.

They walked down the halls quietly until Harry found a classroom that was empty, he pushed the door open and entered it, holding it open for Marietta, who's mouth was chattering from the cold. Harry tried a warming charm, but was unsuccessful, and so they moved to the back of the room, when an old fireplace was. Harry lit a fire, and they pulled two rickety chairs as close as they could.

"You don't remember any of it, do you?" Harry asked.

"Well," Marietta said quietly, "sometimes I remember flashes, little pieces of things that happened. Other than that no, I don't remember most of it."

"Why do you want to come back?"

"Have you ever made a mistake?" she asked, rubbing her hands together and holding them out to let the flames lick at them. "Something that was so bad, no matter how much you try and ignore it, you can't. Something you would give almost anything for to make right?"

"This is just a group of people, it's not something that's life and death," Harry replied, surprised that she'd asked the question. It was just a group of people, a group of friends working together.

"I made a mistake," she said quietly, a long, long time ago. I was only twelve. My father, he's a muggle, was a muggle. We haven't seen him in almost fifteen years. So, my mum, she took care of me, took me to work with her, schooled me through self-study. She worked hard to make sure I was educated for my age. It's one of the reasons I made it into Ravenclaw."

Marietta pulled the hood away from her face now that the room was starting to warm up. The fire crackled, and sparkled in her eyes, giving them a forlorn look. "When I was eleven, she found out that I was going to go to Hogwarts, and was so happy. But, I wasn't. I wanted my father to know, wanted to tell him I was a witch, and I was going to be the best person at the school. I tried to find him, I spent the whole year trying to track him down, asking frends of my mother who worked at the ministry for any information involving him. I didn't get far, no one seemed to know much about him. So, when school got out at the end of the year, a few days into the summer, I knicked the folder from the Department of Records to see who my father was. They know, the ministry keeps track of those sorts of things like that, especially in the case of interhuman relations. I found out, but I was also caught."

Harry was surprised to hear that the ministry did something like that, but when he thought about it more he wasn't really that surprised. After the sort of things he'd heard about the magical world and its prejudice, it made a lot of sense.

After taking a breath of air, and letting Harry think, Marietta continued. "My mother was placed in the spotlight because of it, and she was removed from her position at the ministry pending an investigation. She did get a job again, but it set her career back almost to the beginning. After that I promised myself that if I made a mistake I would always do whatever I could to fix it."

"So, that's what you're trying to do now?" Harry asked, frowning.

Marietta sighed. "Last year, I betrayed you, right?" she asked. "Cho said that I told Professor Umbridge about the group. She also says that I never told them everything, that in the end I just didn't say anything. The problem is, is that I don't remember any of it at all. I think someone put a memory charm on me."

"Someone did," Harry said immediately. "To make sure that no one got in trouble. Since all you could do was say it was the first meeting you knew of, they couldn't really do all that much about it. However, they had the list, and it said Dumbledore's Army on it, so it forced Dumbledore to flee instead of them expelling me."

Marietta opened her mouth to say something, and then closed it again. "Dumbledore's Army?" she asked surprised. "I thought we were a defense club."

"We were," Harry told her. "It was originally called the Defense Association. But, since the ministry was worried about Dumbledore creating an army, we decided to call it Dumbledore's Army to spite them."

"Oh... ok," Marietta said with a slight nod. "I wanted to tell you that, I think I thought... well, since the ministry said that we weren't suppose to have the group, I think eventually I thought we were going to far. Maybe that's why I told the professor. I know I was wrong now, that they were lying about everything, but I don't know if I knew it then. Maybe I thought I was telling the right people. I know it's not a good excuse, but I wanted to tell you why I did it."

"And you think I'd forgive you because of that?" Harry asked calmly. He wasn't angry that she was trying to explain himself, he knew the feeling, knew what it was like to need to explain himself.

"No," she said quickly. "No, no. I wanted to tell you, because I made a decision yesterday when my coin changed the date again. I sat down to think about it, really think about it, and I made a difficult decision."

"What was the decision?" Harry asked, interested in hearing what it was.

"Last time I joined the DA because Cho brought me along," she said calmly. "I remember that. I remember what happened before the first meeting, how shed begged me to come along with her, so I know it was because of her that I joined. Last time I told the ministry, I don't know why exactly, but I told you why I think I did it."

Harry nodded, waiting for her to get to the point.

"I want to join again this time, without anyone else telling me to come."

"Why?" Harry asked. He certainly didn't want her if she only wanted to be forgiven.

"Because... my father was killed by Death Eaters," Marietta said sullenly. "I found out this summer, since I'm of legal age I requested the files that I tried to steal when I was little. I know a few people in the Ministry — because my mother works there — and the Ministry also owed me a favor. I used to always think the Ministry was right, that they could deal with anything, and anyone. Now, I hate them, and I know they lie, and about more than just things they're afraid about. They knew about my father, knew he'd been captured, but it was more important to keep themselves safe, because they had their own spy, and so they didn't try and save him, they let him die. I hate them for that, I hate them for making my mother work so hard, do things she hates to do, and I hate the Death Eaters and ... him... even more."

"So you're joining because you want to fight Voldemort?" Harry asked. Marietta shivered at the mention of his name, and tried to suppress a scream, it came out as a high pitched burp, but she did a much better job than most people did.

"I want to stop him," she said after she'd recovered from the scream. It looked like she'd swallowed air though, and she had to take a minute before she spoke to breathe properly. "I want to fight him, like you did when you guys went into the Ministry last year. I want to be strong enough to make sure that my friends and family don't die with me unable to help."

After considering for a short while, Harry nodded. "How far are you willing to go?" he asked. Wanting to know exactly how much he wanted to do with her. If she was truly set against the ministry, and the Death Eaters, she could provide a good asset. He was going to have to talk to Hermione about her, and maybe Blaise, since she was the one that seemed to know so much about the spy business.

"I'll do anything to stop them," she said shortly. "I'll make sure that, no matter what happens, they won't be able to mar our world more than they have."

"Anything?" Harry asked, thinking. If she really was willing, there were a lot of things she could help with, if only she could be trusted. He really needed to talk to Hermione about making something up.

Forty minutes later, having sent Marietta back to her common room, Harry was wondering if it would have been better to bring her back, to the group. He stared at all of them, throwing curses at each other, and felt pride that they were – in a way – his students.

"Alright everyone," Harry said, gathering them together. "We'll have another meeting before the week ends, I'll be talking with everyone to find out when the best time is, and then go from there. Any of the new members will have to check with someone who has a coin so that they know when the meeting will be. I don't want us out too late. Even though we're a legal group now, I don't want anyone to get in trouble."

Everybody nodded and filtered out of the room in groups. Harry watched as Ron, who had been intent on staying, seemed to be dragged out of the room by none other than Lavender Brown. Harry grinned as he saw the horrified look on Ron's face just before the door shut behind him.

Hermione straightened up and sat down, finishing organizing some of the pillows. "You know," she said in a sharp tone. "I really would have liked to know about this before tonight."

Harry, relieved that everything had gone as well as it had, just glanced at her. He was exhausted from the workout he'd had after returning. Wesley had been one of the only students who could compete with the previous DA members, and he'd been quite the competition. Harry had even had a time when fighting him, which awed nearly the whole group.

Of course, when the duel was over, Blaise had gone and gone and made a comment (loud enough that several people heard of course) about Harry being too easy on newcomers. Wesley, happy to have gone as far as he had, got a determined look on his face as he left and Harry had glared at Blaise. He hadn't gone easy, and to anyone truly experienced in dueling, they would have known it. However, it seemed everyone else had taken her word for it, and it seemed by the end of the evening Harry's mystique had been given a new height in everyone's mind.

Sitting at the table while everyone cleared out, Harry barely heard Hermione's words. He was still angry with Blaise for her earlier remarks. She'd of course been annoyed with his disregard of her words over the last few days, but he'd spent a lot of the time absent mindedly thinking about the DA and what he was going to do with them.

In addition, he had to worry about Blaise now, who obviously wasn't going to just play a minor role, it was to lowly for a Slytherin to even bother doing such a thing. As his mind turned back to Blaise he remembered he was suppose to be angry with her and frowned as he looked her way.

"Trying to think of the proper words to tell me off?" Blaise asked.

Harry glanced around and, after noting that no one other than Hermione was present in the room, nodded. "You can't just go and take over things here," he stated matter-of-factly. "Hermione, Ron and I spent a lot of time last year getting this group worked out and I don't want you going and screwing up all the trust that we've built up. It's hard enough for some of them to deal with a Slytherin."

From the corner of his eyes he could see Hermione shake her head, trying to keep from being a part of the argument. He didn't care though, he needed to set Blaise in her place, and the only way that was going to happen was if he didn't let her have an inch.

"Oh please," Blaise said haughtily. "You think trust is the only thing you need for this group to work? Potter, you really need a lesson in how witches and wizards think. Maybe it was growing up with muggles that created such an allusion in your head, but I can tell you for certain that you've got it wrong. Here people thrive on fear, on joy, on hope, you don't get them to battle because they trust you, you get them to battle because they think you'll win. You really need to build that image up before they fight a real battle, because the moment that the battles finished you're going to lose a lot of the group."

Hermione was watching Blaise with interest, and Harry was keeping quite, listening to her lecture. One thing he had learned about Blaise since he'd met her, was that it was better to let her talk and listen than to try to stop her from talking, or not listen at all. She did have some good ideas, he could give her that. However, he wasn't sure if she was right on this matter.

"Your little army of brats at the ministry are the most loyal of the bunch," she said harshly. "Don't expect the others to stay by your side after a real fight with Death Eaters. No matter how much it's demonstrated and discussed, none of them have the slightest inkling of the pain of the Cruciatus curse. They don't realize how quickly your best friend can die on the battlefield, right next to you. They're not soldiers, they're children, wanting to play soldier. When the real battles begin, and they're forced to fight, they're going to rethink fighting. You've got to give them a good reason to fight, and you've got to appear unstoppable to them. You had a good start, telling them you'd fight with or without them, now you just have to show them that you're the best of the best, and that they can rely on you no matter how hard it gets."

"That's trust," Hermione pointed out.

"It's not trust you're trying to gain," Blaise snapped at her, and then turned towards Harry. "You can't be regular Harry Potter anymore, you have to be the boy-who-lived, you have to be the-boy-who'll-live. They have to have faith in you, be completely devoted."

"You're talking like he's going to become the next Dark Lord," Hermione said after a moment. "Like they should worship the ground he walks on."

"And why not?" Blaise asked. "He's not a Dark Lord by any means, but what's wrong with a little worship, people that worship you will go to a lot further lengths than people that are your friends."

"Harry is not a god."

Harry couldn't help but stare as the two girls went at it. Hermione, her eyes burning with defiance while Blaise kept her cool for the most part, a smirk growing on her face.

"Well, gods aren't exactly omnipotent beings, are they?" she asked smartly. "You have Merlin, who became a god in the history books, and he's far from omnipotent. Look at the dedication that people give to him even now. The highest award the ministry gives out is the Order of Merlin, first class, and Merlin's been dead for centuries."

"That award is given because of the respect people give to what he did." Hermione said smartly. "According to ..."

"Yes, yes, yes, according to some book, I'm sure that Merlin was really everything that they talk about in the myths, and I'm sure that muggles have successfully proved magic doesn't exist. I'm also sure that there's a book about Crumple-Horned Snorkacks as well. Now, the only difference in what you know and I know, is what we believe. You rely on nothing but facts, the cold hard truth. You're very different from most witches because of it. I gained a lot of knowledge from experience. I know what it's going to take to win this war, and Harry's going to have to be the key."

Sitting on the side, Harry couldn't help but wonder if he'd done the right thing, letting Blaise into the DA, it certainly seemed like she was trying to take control of his life.

"Do I get a say in this?" he inquired and he got a cold glance from both girls, who were too riled up with each other to even bother with him.

"That doesn't matter, there is no possibility that Harry is the next Merlin, it's not like they're going to create a Harry Award or something like that. It's completely ridiculous. Harry I don't mean to be cold about it or anything," Hermione added, glancing at him, "I just don't see you becoming some all powerful being."

"He doesn't have to try all that hard," Blaise said slyly. "After some of the rumors that have been circulating the school about how he managed to get back into Hogwarts like he did, somehow apparating right through the wards, he's already got a new level in most peoples minds, it just needs a bit of cultivating. That is what I'm working on. If people are going to revere you they'll need to keep hearing about your exploits, so I expect you to make sure to pull off some wonderful new trick every few weeks, something that no one in their right mind would do, or be able to do."

"You can't just tell him he needs to do something like that, and you're implying he should break the rules."

"No," Blaise said, standing up. "I'm telling him he needs to make sure that everyone sees him like they should see him, as the person that can defeat the Dark Lord."

A little confused now, Harry watched Blaise as she smirked. "The prophecy, it was about you and Voldemort, right?"

Blinking, Harry stared at her. Had she figured something out? Had she possibly heard a part of it, since Voldemort knew a part of it? That was unlikely, he told himself, Voldemort wouldn't be the sort of person that would share such information. If someone were to be told he could be killed it was possible that they would defect, and he couldn't have people defecting.

Until now, Hermione had been showing deep disgust for Blaise, but at the mention of the prophecy she blinked and suddenly became interested. Harry opened his mouth to say no, but the words wouldn't come out. "I said that didn't I, during the meeting. Why does it matter?" he asked.

"Because you obviously either know it, or you don't believe much in prophecy," Blaise said.

Harry couldn't hide the surprise that lit up his face. How could she possibly know he knew?

"I said the prophecy was broken," Harry defended. "I didn't hear what it said."

"But you know it," she said, smirking. "I told you you'd make a wonderful Slytherin."

"How do you know that?" Harry asked, plainly shook. It was almost as if she was reading his mind, but he'd learned that that wasn't possible, people could read thought and emotions, not direct words. Plus, he had a strong understanding of Occlumency, so he was sure that Blaise wouldn't have been able to get through his shields without some sort of traces.

"Voldemort knows you know," Blaise said smartly. "It was one of the things he brought up in that meeting that he showed up at. He was quite ready to take you to the very edge of death over and over to find out what it was. I don't care if you're going to deny it, but I know you know."

"So who told you?" Hermione asked from the side. Then, she seemed to realize the answer to her own question. "Of course!" she said, delighted. "A.P.W.B.D. — Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, he knew it, it was made to him by..."

"Sybill Trelawney," Harry said calmly, "the first real prophecy she's ever made in her life, according to the Dumbledore."

"Not the only?" Blaise asked, her eyes narrowed. "That fraud's made real prophecy's? And more than one?"

Harry glared at her. He didn't like the way that the conversation was going. He really didn't want to get into the fact that he'd seen her make another prophecy, and that it had come true, exactly as it had been prophesied. It was much easier to not believe in prophecy, no matter how apparent it was becoming, especially since it involved him directly.

"Alright, fine," he said, making up his mind. "Voldemort knows about the prophecy, obviously, and he knows the first couple of lines."

"So you do know it," Blaise said, completely throwing aside the fact that she'd thought it a fact only a moment ago. "It's interesting that Voldemort knows some of it, but not everything. If it hast to do with the both of you, and he's obviously dead set on getting it, it must say something about him losing, failing, dying, or something like that. Am I right?"

Harry watched her, eyes narrowed. He wasn't about to tell anyone the whole prophecy, it'd work out much better if he had that later to fall back on, and if he and Dumbledore were the only ones that knew the full content of it, who was to say that he had to tell Voldemort the real content? Fudging a few words if he had to might make everything seem a little more difficult to deal with.

"Well, maybe not just that," Blaise said, when Harry didn't answer. "It could involve some power he seeks, something that would make him even more powerful than he is. However, the prophecy is about the both of you, so there must be some sort of connection, some reason why you're important, why you keep living."

Blaise looked up, her eyes burning with interest. "I heard you have another scar," she said. "Cin said it was one of the most beautiful things that they'd ever seen. Will you show it to me?"

The question was so far off topic that Harry didn't react right away, his mind was still on the prophecy and what it did mean, what it meant to him, and what it meant to the world. It might be best if the world knew what Voldemort knew, the first bit that had already been spread. It could bring around some of the people that were not sure which side to fight on. But, if it was a good idea, why hadn't Dumbledore already done it? If he knew the world needed someone that could be seen as a savior, why not let the rumor spread after Voldemort had reappeared? Was there some reason he hadn't, other than his apparent foolish notion it would be too much for Harry to bare?

"No," he responded quickly after his mind had digested the question, he didn't want her to think that he was thinking it over. There was no way he was going to just strip down for Blaise. That would be far too embarrassing.

"I could very well force you to," Blaise threatened.

Harry frowned. "I don't want you to even try," he said, feeling threatened. "It's not beautiful either, it's just a scar, a little bigger than my last one, but just a scar. Scars can't be beautiful."

Blaise studied him for a moment and made a move towards her wand. Harry moved quicker and had his own wand pointed towards her so fast that it barely registered in his mind. Blaise was smirking widely as Harry found himself staring at her, wand out while hers had disappeared.

"You're quite jumpy Potter, and you are fast, I'll give you that. But you're still not fast enough."

Harry blinked and looked down, his robe had been slit open, in the front more than halfway down. He blushed and covered himself, turning away from her, only to find that the back of his robes had been cut as well and were slipped off his shoulders. He tried as best as possible to pulled them back up while keeping himself covered, but it didn't work very well.

He heard Hermione gasp and he tried harder, eventually deciding it was best to face them and hold his robes up. He really didn't want someone else to see the scar, especially Hermione. The damage had been done though. Her face betrayed the horror and shock of the scar and he bowed his head. "It's just a scar," he said quietly, keeping his head down so as not to show the embarrassment and pain on his face.

The door opened and Harry looked up surprised, to see Tonks standing there, looking shocked. He realized what it must have looked like, he was partially bowed before two girls, his robes down to his waste, and both of them staring at him in revolution, or shock, or a little of both.

As surprised as he was that she was there, he didn't say anything, he just stared at her with pleading eyes. "What are you doing!" she demanded.


End file.
